Greenergy

Tesco has partnered with Greenergy to build the UK's largest biodiesel refinery. The refinery should be running by mid 2006, using rape seed oil from British farms. I reckon there's still a niche market for local recycling of oil from restaurants by co-ops, but amajor development such as this is great for raising the profile of bio fuels.

via Sustainablog

Technorati tag: BioDiesel

Way up high

A possible answer to all the NIMBYs who argue against wind farms- high altitude wind power. The platforms fly up to their working altitude under power, but stay up there operating like tethered autogyros, the blades spinning in the breeze.

via Treehugger and Sustainablog

Technorati tag: Wind power

Bad Accounting

The "services" of nature- pollination, air conditioning by wind, mixing of nutrients in the oceans, was estimated in 1997 to be worth the equivalent of $33 trillion to the world economy. These valuable resources have been squandered and up to two thirds of them have been used up by human activity.

Technorati tag: Biodiversity, Environment

2050

From yesterday's Guardian, an optimistic, but plausible, view of the energy efficient future.

Technorati tag: Sustainable Development

Green Steel

Two possible ways to make iron production less polluting- one method replaces coke with plastics, surprisingly this creates fewer noxious byproducts, the other involves electrolysis on a grand scale.

Technorati tag: Iron, Steel

Switch Off

The recent demise of my computer monitor raises a couple of green issues. One- why was I wasting so much energy leaving it on standby overnight? and two- how to get rid of it.

Technorati tag: Electricity

Green Mortgage

The Ecology Building Society exists to make it easier for builders/ buyers of green homes to get the money they require. Not only that, but they are determined to maintain their mutual status when so many of the larger BS's have converted to banks in the last decade.

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: Mortgage, Green Finance

Delay cycle

The Government has chosen to delay implementation of an EU law requiring recycling of computers and other coonsumer electronics. Apparently the suppliers and retailers won't be ready until next year, when the law is supposed to come into effect in August. How long have they had to prepare for this and are other countries having similar problems?

Technorati tag: Recycling, Computer Recycling

CHP

WhisperTech's micro Combined Heat and Power systems come in AC and DC configurations, for use on the electricity grid or away from it.

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: Combined Heat and Power, CHP

Bio-Beetle

If you go to Hawaii be sure to rent one of these BioDiesel fueled Beetles to get around the islands.

via Treehugger and Jalopnik

Technorati tag: BioDiesel

Score card

The Power Scorecard is limited in scope, covering a few US states and power suppliers, but the basics apply wherever you are.

Technorati tag: Electricity

Dirty Water

Hydroelectric power isn't as green as we all thought. With the carbon dioxide released when the land is cleared and methane produced by rotting vegetation covered by the water, it can actually be worse than equivalent traditional power plants.

Technorati tag: Hydroelectric

Home Grown

Green Fuels sell BioDiesel production units ranging from the domestic to industrial.

Technorati tag: BioDiesel

Law of Renewable Energy

One of the great spectres in debates about future power use and pollution is China and India's increasing consumption. China recently introduced a law requiring increased production of electricity from renewable sources. Electricity companies will be required to buy this electricity, balancing the costs against currently cheaper traditional forms of generation.

Technorati tag: Renewable Energy, China

TerraPass

A carbon trading scheme for drivers, TerraPass funds green energy programmes with money volutarily paid by car owners. The scheme charges more for larger, more polluting vehicles.

Technorati tag: Transport

Carbon Sham

Was it Reagan who said that trees caused global warming? Along similar lines, the US Government has started a scheme for farmers and foresters to track their CO2 emmissions and any sequestration they might also do. As pointed out, it's a con, because Monty Burns can claim that he'd be belching smog out of a coal fired power station if he weren't running a nuclear plant and get Brownie Points for it.

Technorati tag: Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Sequestration

Integrated Agriculture

The Centre for Integrated Agricultural Systems is "a sustainable agriculture research center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison."

Technorati tag: Agriculture

Primary Power

This is the sort of thing I hope Tony means when he goes on about "sustainable public procurement". Seaton primary school in Devon has installed solar and wind power generators, which not only cover the shool's own energy needs but can also feed power back to the grid.

Technorati tag: Sustainable Development, Solar Power, Wind Power, Education

40% House

Up to eighty thousand houses a year should be knocked down for the next decade as part of plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, according to a report. This is because a quarter of Britain's CO2 emmissions come from houses, so improvements in them will help the Government's aim of cutting output by 60% by 2050.

Technorati tag: Carbon Dioxide, Housing

Wear your solar

A new plastic that can be applied as a layer on fabric can convert up to 30% of sunlight to electricity. The inventor sees a way to power mobile devices with the clothes we wear.

via Imprinted

Technorati tag: Solar Power

Laminar Flow

A new system that takes advantage of the way chemicals behave in narrow channels could pave the way for more efficient fuel cells. The use of thin channels does away with the membrane that previously separated the chemicals used in the cell. With the membrane goes the restriction to only acidic solutions. Alkaline solutions could make fuel cells up to 40% more efficient.

Technorati tag: Fuel Cell

Off the Grid

A selection of US based, but no doubt useful, photovoltaic links.

Technorati tag: Solar Power, Photovoltaic

Trends

Clean Edge has released its annual Clean Energy Trends report. Analysis and links are available here. Basically, if you want to make green from Green, invest in photovoltaics, wind power and fuel cells, but also be ready for new industries to spring up around low energy housing.

via Worldchanging

Technorati tag: Clean Energy, Energy Future

Green, White and Blue

Over half of US conservatives surveyed, and 67% of NASCAR fans, now consider it patriotic to buy a more fuel efficient car. The numbers come from a survey carried out for lobbying group 40mpg.org, which exists to convince the country's law- and car-makers that they should aim for a mandatory fuel consumption average of 40mpg. If, as the survey suggests, half of all car owners are already switching or contemplating switching to more efficient transport, the good old market economy may force the change for them.

via Jalopnik

Technorati tag: Transport, Fuel Efficiency

Doing the right thing, at a price

As the price of oil continues to rise, many developers in the US are seeing more value in paying that little extra upfront for long term energy savings. Government subsidies and tax incentives can't hurt, either.

Technorati tag: Green Buildings, Sustainable Development

Armchair Ecowarrior

What's a part time ecowarrior to do? More importantly, for an election blog, how should they vote?

Tony Blair recently unveiled plans for sustainable development. A key part of the plan seems to be a call to make overseas governmental trips carbon neutral, investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects to offset the air travel. Is there something we're not being told about ministerial travel?

More substantially, there's going to be a "national task force on sustainable public procurement". This is more like it, but what will it apply to? Purchasing? Light and power? New buildings? The place to go to find out has to be the Labour Party website. Type "Sustainable development" or "environment" into the search engine and you get........?

Not quite nothing, but really this tells me nothing. Are new hospitals going to get solar water heating? Could city academies be as radical in their low impact design as their educational ethos? I'll never know if I look here.

Try the same search at the Conservative or Lib Dem sites and you find substance, such as recent speeches by Tim Yeo and Charles Kennedy. Finding that Tory central office is carbon neutral was a pleasant surprise, and both parties say they'll do something to make aviation pay its environmental dues. In terms of detailed plans Yeo wins over Kennedy. Hoever, the latter is proposing a dedicated Department of Environment, Energy and Transport. I could argue with aspects of either speech, but at least they've been presented so I can argue them.

Labour has a nice picture of a field with bales in it. (Square bales, mind. All the farmers where I used to live had switched over to round bales before I went to University over a decade ago. Are the publicity photos even up to date?)

Maybe when the phoney war ends and we enter the election campaign proper Labour will start telling us more, in greater detail, about what they'll do if given another four years. Or they may carry on saying nice things illustrated with pretty pictures and hope we'll be fooled again.

I wrote this last week when asked to produce an example blog for the Today programme, which is recruiting bloggers to cover the election. Wish me luck.

Technorati tag: Politics

Link dump

I don't have the time to read these right now, so I'll come back to them later.

Trailbreaker: Climate change update.

New Lab Delves Into Plants For Fuels

Aim: To Measure Green against Green

Alternative Energy California: A Million Solar Power Homes?

Green Energy Sector Should Stop Squabbling - Banker

Technorati tag: Climate Change

We only have sixty minutes to save the world!

Joel Makower set a challenge to find a good way to teach a one hour class in sustainability. Winner of the challenge was Vinay Gupta, whose plan is reprinted in full in the post.

via Sustainablog

Technorati tag: Sustainability

Not so renewable

A highly successful Government grants scheme designed to increase the uptake of solar power, and consequently improve the market and drive costs down, is to be scrapped three years into its supposed ten year lifespan. The Government has a new programme, called Low Carbon Buildings, in the pipeline, but there's likely to be a gap between the old scheme being phased out and this one coming online.

Technorati tag: Solar Power

Texas Hold'em

Texas, of all places, is racing ahead in the renewable energy stakes- looking like it will hit a self imposed target for 2009 by the end of this year. In the grand scheme renewables only count for 3% of the state's power, but it's a start.

Technorati tag: Renewable Energy

Live with it

It's a touch fatalistic, but many climate scientists now accept that there will be some level of climate change as a result of global warming and argue that we should prepare for it.

Technorati tag: Climate Change

Green Drinks

A meet and greet social event for eco types. Greendrinks meetings are similar to Critical Mass rides, they just sort of happen because a bunch of like-minded people decide they should. There isn't a Manchester one set up, someone should sort that out (don't look at me, I'm crap at that sort of thing. I signed up to loads of MeetUp events and haven't been to one yet, I'm not the organising sort.)

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: Green

Food Miles

Air freightng food overnight just so we can have out of season veg is the worst offender when it comes to the hidden cost of our food, but domestic production, being much larger, causes more damage overall. The best solution is to get food as near as possible to straight from the farmer, preferably grown within 20km of your home. Which is close to what Northern Harvest achieves, so I'm a bit smug.

Technorati tag: Food Miles

Emissions Neutral Vehicle

The ENV is a fuel cell powered motorbike that runs so silently its manufacturers are thinking of adding an artificial vroom.

Technorati tag: Transport

Sunlight in a tube

Scientists have developed a way to get sunlight deep inside buildings using optical fibres. The sysytem would allow major savings on electric lighting during daylight, and be backed up by flourescent tubes when it is dark or overcast.

via Slashdot

Technorati tag: Lighting

Utility Scale

Farmers in Michigan are turning to wind power as an alternate source of revenue or supply, despite the state having no Alternative Energy policy. A couple of turbines can go a long way toward writing off large energy bills, or the land could be leased to companies wanting to set up their own windmills.

via Sustainablog

Technorati tag: Wind Power

Over the Hump

A follow up to yesterday's Peak Oil post. Top energy industry analysts Herold have started doing a company by company analysis of when supplies will run out. (Salon article, take a Day Pass to be able to read it.)

Technorati tag: Oil

The Colour of Money

Blair and Brown are certainly talking the talk this week. But will telling G8 Plus members that green thinking could be a moneyspinner get through to enough people? And are they really walking the walk when the government plans road and air expansion left, right and centre?

Technorati tag: Climate Change

Peak Oil

What is Peak Oil? And how is it measured? Treehugger has a primer on the subject.

Technorati tag: Oil

Bicicleta

Carpet made from recycled bike inner tubes.

Technorati tag: Recycling

Windy City

Manchester council plan to have a few wind turbines and solar panels included in future developments. It'll look cool, but are they also going to insist on energy efficent design to double the impact? I hope so, because I like the idea of living in Britain's greenest city, which is their stated aim.

Technorati tag: Manchester

Building in a bag

A very specialised type of pre-fab building, this. Cement impregnated canvas on an inflatable frame means a rigid structure can be erected in a disaster zone simply by adding water and pumping up the tent. It's almost as cheap and portable as a tent but far stronger.

Technorati tag: Pre-fab

Big biodiesel

America's biodiesel producers are forming co-ops to increase output and raise their profiles.

Technorati tag: Biodiesel

Small plots

The Windowsill Organic Gardener.



Technorati tag: Gardening

Blown over

Germany is way ahead of us in generation of electricity from windfarms and is aiming for 20% generation. However, a recent report claims that the cost of connecting all these farms to the grid is exorbitant and other methods would reduce greenhouse emissions more cheaply. Of course, the antis have jumped on this, but I say we should be looking at the long term needs for power supply and realise that costs can be spread over quite a long time.

via Human v Nature

Technorati tag: Wind Power

Solar Tower

LAnd has been purchased- 25,000 acres in Australia- for the world's first large scale Solar Tower, generating electricity by heating air and funneling it up a kilometre high chimney to drive wind turbines.

Technorati tag: Solar Power

Fab

Treehugger on prefabricated houses.

Technorati tag: House

Directories

Two directories that should hold some useful information. I'm putting them here so I can come back later and mine them when I have the time-

DOE National Laboratories : National Renewable Energy Laboratory : Research Databases

DOE National Laboratories : National Renewable Energy Laboratory : Research Areas

Technorati tag: Renewable Energy

StreetCar

It's all about image. The StreetCar is a very modern bus designed to look and, with segregated roadways, move like a tram. The idea is to get professionals onto public transport and out of their penis replacements. Might work.

Technorati tag: Transport

Starts at home.....

50% of those surveyed by the Energy Saving Trust believed that going green was more expensive, totally missing the point of saving energy. This is why there needs to be a programme like "How to Save the World for Free". I really need to complete the second draft of the proposal.

The Energy Saving Trust

Technorati tag: Energy

Local food. For local people.

Part 2 of Treehugger's brief guide to the hidden impact of food.

Technorati tag: Food

Green shoots

Tony Blair has unveiled plans for sustainable development. They include an interesting, if low impact, call to make overseas governmental trips carbon neutral. This would involve investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects to offset air travel. An interesting idea, but it would be cool if they could extend it to cover all air travel, not just that for bigwigs.

There's also going to be a "national task force on sustainable public procurement". Will this apply to PFI builds as well? Probably not, which is a shame because if they could look beyond short term gain a bit of investment in energy saving (and on-site generating through solar, wind etc.) could save millions over the lifetime of a major development such as a hospital.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

Think Global, Eat Local

Treehugger is investigating the hidden costs of food. Part 1- is organic food any better if loads of fuel is wasted to get it to the shops? Most of Casa Spinneyhead's veg now comes from Northern Harvest. I know that even if I don't buy the organic box, the food is local and has done the minimum damage getting to my door.

Technorati tag: Food

Sponge

Sponge sounds interesting, and, importantly, is UK based. I don't have a lot of time to digest the site right now, so here's the group's own description of itself-

Sponge is a network of open-minded individuals who share a particular interest in sustainable development. These individuals generally work in, or are associated with the development of our built environment; from bricks and mortar through design, engineering and planning to communities and regeneration.

Sponge provides a focus for fresh ideas in building; demonstrating how sustainable development can improve the quality of our built and natural environment.

Sponge works with existing groups who also have an interest in sustainability and individuals who wish to be kept informed. The group is aimed at young professionals and participation is open and encouraged to all.

Sponge was launched in 1999 and continues to grow at a healthy and sustainable rate....!

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: Groups

Waste Not,....

A study by npower shows the amount of money the average Mancunian wastes. For the city as a whole it totals nearly £21m in energy bills and more in credit and shopping. I should get all these numbers and use them to back up my arguments in teh How to Save the World for Free proposal.

Technorati tag: Energy

Truth in Advertising

The Soil Association has to reword some advertising leaflets after the ASA ruled claims that organic produce is healthier and more humane to animals couldn't be scientifically proven.

Technorati tag: Food

BlueCar

French company BatScap is offering a mini city car based upon revolutionary battery technology.

Technorati tag: Transport

Stewards

The Government is to introduce grants to encourage farmers to be less damaging. Money can be had for retaining hadgerows and stone walls, reducing pesticide use or going the whhole hog and turning organic.

Technorati tag: Farming

24hour Mulching People

New from Japan, a kitchen waste disposal system that works extremely quickly to create compost. It doesn't say whether this compost is viable for horticultural use or merely a bonus in reducing volume. The first would be excellent, but the latter's a good step forward in itself from a landfill point of view.

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: Waste

Towers of power

Carbon nanotube towers could boost the efficiency of photovoltaic cells.

via Slashdot

Technorati tag: Solar Energy

ZeroCarbonCity

100 cities worldwide have signed up to an information sharing scheme that will highlight good and bad energy practices.

Technorati tag: Global Warming

Twike

I think I want one. Very popular in Switzerland, the Twike is a combination electric/ pedal powered beastie with regenerative braking and cruise control. And it's enclosed for those Manchester days.

Technorati tag: Transport

How To Save The World For Free

A proposal for the TV series I'd like to make/ see made. This is a first draft. There's a lot more detail in the transport section than the others because that's the thing I've spent the most time thinking about. Already, I'm thinking the format needs changing a bit, so many of the subjects interlink that it could be hard to dedicate separate episodes to each. Any suggestions for areas to cover and ways to illustrate the various points are welcome.

How To Save The World For Free

Make over programmes have been popular for years. Some have been about improving the value of a home, but most are simply about the look. A recent trend is for programmes aimed at changing lifestyles- making people tidier and more efficient.. I believe it is time to go further. It is time for agrander view, a guide to living a better life and benefitting from it- How To Save The World For Free.
Everyone has heard of global warming. Most people know they should do something about it but feel powerless or that the cost is too high. The aim of this seies is to show that they can make a difference and, if they plan far enough ahead, improve their finances as well.

The Format
Ideally the series would follow the owners of a number of homes as they change their houses and lifestyles. There should be a detached property, a semi-detached and terraced: a family, a couple and a single person. The participants would specify their budgets and a time period (minimum five years) over which they wish to recoup their costs.
Each episode would cover a different aspect of the “greening”, including water, heat, power, transport and food. As well as the examples in the show ideal cases will be highlighted, such as buildings designed from the ground up for energy efficiency.

The Episodes
Transport
Possibly the most contentious area, because this requires an ongoing change. This episode would include the “2 Mile challenge”- The participants pledge to walk to anything within a set distance. Two miles is prferable, but one mile will do. To illustrate this, a large scale map centred on their property is used. With a nail banged into the position of their house a ruler is used to scribe one mile and two mile circles. Within these circles the various amenities are marked- schools, shops, pubs, bus stops etc. This can tie in to the food episode, especially if most of a household's requirements can be found within walking distance.
This episode would also do an analysis of the benefits of cycling over driving to work then going to the gym for exercise. For slightly more than the cost of gym membership a quality commuting cycle could be bought, saving time and petrol and parking costs.
Also- Safe Routes to School, bio-diesel, smaller cars (challenge the participants to see just how much stuff they really need on a journey and find the smallest space that stuff could be packed into).

Food
Looks at the hidden costs of the supermarket shop, including time, fuel etc. and long term changes. The benefits of preparing food at home can't really be judged financially, but the programme will look at some such as better control over what you consume. It will cover the pros and cons of buying organic, the time saving opportunities of delivery and benefits of shopping locally (tieing in to the 2 mile challenge).

Water
From low-flush toilets to solar heating. Also, brown water recycling and is a dishwasher more water efficient than cleaning in the sink (I'm pretty sure it's more efficient than the way I do it).

Heat
Double glazing; orientation- would it be beneficial to enlarge South facing windows and brick up a few North facing ones; solar heating and designing the house for air flow without needing air conditioning.

Power
Consumption- compare a week with filament bulbs to one with low energy lights (remind the participants that just because the lights use less power it doesn't mean they should be left on all the time.); green energy providers; Solar power; wind power.

At the end of the series the participants will total up the money thay have spent, work out the savings they are making and assess whether they will break even within their chosen time period.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse