Smart Appliances

The US' Department of Energy is investigating add-ons to household appliances that can detect disruption in the power supply and temporarily turn themselves off. If enough were deployed they could significantly lower peak loads and cut down brown- and black-outs. Of course, it would be more intelligent to buy energy efficient appliances and lower overall consumption, but this helps as well.

Technorati tag: Appliances, Electricity

Cleaning with sunlight

Oxygena tiles contain titanium dioxide which, through its photocatalytic properties, can actually scrub the atmosphere of pollutants.

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: Pollution, Photocatalyst

Scrapback

Peugeot Citroën, Europe's second-biggest car maker, is promoting a Europe-wide plan to take older, more polluting cars off the roads by giving their owners a €1,000 (£665) incentive to scrap them.

The money, which would be paid by governments, could be used to buy a brand new car or a newer second hand one but the owners, if they wish, could choose to pocket the cash instead.

via Jalopnik

Technorati tag: Cars, Transport

Baby's first eco-house

The Power House is a science toy that teaches about renewable energy. It includes experiments with solar power, wind and plant growth, as well as featuring an electric car.

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: EcoHouse, Solar Power

Closing the price gap

Biofuels, ethanol and biodiesel, are getting more competitive as the price of oil soars.

Technorati tag: Biofuel, Oil

Gaia Selene

One man's solution to the Earth's coming energy and ecology crisis- move to the moon.

Technorati tag: Moon, Science fiction

UnGreen Screen

If you're worried about your power consumption then you'd better get a smaller TV or ditch the goggle box altogether.

Already, televisions account for about 4 percent of annual residential electricity use in the United States - enough to power all of the homes in the state of New York for a year, according to a new NRDC study. Today there are about 266 million TVs, and that number is growing by 3.5 million per year. By 2009, when half of all new TV sales are expected to be extended- or high-definition digital sets with big screens, TV energy use will reach about 70 billion kilowatt-hours per year nationwide - about 50 percent higher than at present. Throw in a DVD and VCR player, a pair of high-definition set-top boxes, and other household TVs, and the total TV-related energy use for the home rises to about 10 percent, the NRDC estimates.

Technorati tag: Energy, Television

Walk to work day

Today is Bike to Work Day. However, as I currently work so close to home it would actually take longer to cycle than to walk (when you factor in time to get changed) I don't think I will. However, I hope that enough other people do to make a difference and that a few of them are inspired to do it more regularly.

Technorati tag: Bike, Bike Week, Commute

Bicycle Race

Saturday saw the 2005 World Naked Bike Ride. I doubt it's officially tied to Bike Week and I'm fairly certain I wouldn't have participated if there'd been one in Manchester, but you never can tell.

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: Cycling, Nudity

Dubya saves the world

I've been pondering a question for a few days. One that is just a little heretical

Is George W Bush going to save the World?

Before the wailing and gnashing of teeth begins let me state that it's not something I expect him to do on purpose. Call it ecological blowback- the unforeseen consequence of policies that seem designed to do the exact opposite.

The US is, per capita, the world's biggest consumer of energy. It particularly has a penchant for oil and President Texas Tea is the logical last emperor of the kingdom that petrol built. If the US doesn't slow down its consumption it's due a big crash, one that could easily take the rest of us with it.

So it's for the best that the weak dollar, unrest in the Middle East and whatever other horrible things Dubya's caused means that petrol is now $3 a gallon. When you factor in the exchange rate that doesn't sound like much to us but to a population that has never really had to face up to the true expense of its greed it's quite harsh. Suddenly that SUV is revealed as the wasteful, useless penis extension the rest of us always knew it was.

Every day more and more US citizens are coming to their senses and opting out of the petrol bacchanal. Biofuel- both vegetable oil and ethanol- is being produced in greater amounts. Wired recently reported on what they called the hygrid movement- ordinary citizens protecting their energy supply with home solar or wind.

These aren't the folks on the fringe any more. The new breed of Green is resolutely middle of the road in so many other ways. As Bush's policies continue to hit the middle class we can only expect this constituency to grow and grow.

Even the man himself has paid lip service to biodiesel and fuel cells. But these are a politician's words- from a man other politicians consider untrustworthy- so we shouldn't expect him to really do anything.

In the long term as well Bush's tenure could leave a positive mark. As more cities, and then states, adopt their own Kyoto plans the possibility of a green president becomes stronger. As solar and other renewable technologies become cheaper and more widespread, mor epeople will understand why they should vote for a green president. The oil companies and corporate interests that fund the Bush school of politicians will find their incomes and influence waning. The smart ones will adopt the policies they've spent so many years campaigning against and the dumb ones will die. Foreign oil will become less and less important, bring about the change in the Middle East that force and bribery have failed to create. And the cleaner, greener, nicer United States won't be hated by everyone.

Yes, this is an extremely optimistic vision, but it's not impossible. The only down side will be the revisionists. Much as Reagan is now the man who single handedly brought down Communism- rather than being the guy who was there when it happened- in twenty or thirty years, just as the new Golden Green age is really beginning, we'll have to put up with being told that Dubya did it all on purpose.

Technorati tag: Dubya, Future, Sustainable Development

Think about the poor birds

That's been one of the cries of the wind power naysayers- migrating birds will be sliced into pate by those horrible razor sharp windmill blades. In fact, they either avoid wind farms altogether or steer a course between the turbines.

Technorati tag: Wind power, Birds

Cleaning Power

Microbiologists investigating the use of microbes to clean up contamination have found a strain that generates electricity whilst removing toxins. At the very least they could power their own home/ wastewater treatment facility.

"The bacteria are capable of continuously generating electricity at levels that could be used to operate small electronic devices. As long as the bacteria are fed fuel they are able to produce electricity 24 hours a day," says Charles Milliken of the Medical University of South Carolina, who conducted the research with colleague Harold May.

via Worldchanging

Technorati tag: Electricity, Microbes, Pollution

Greening the Estuary

Shell is proposing a massive windfarm in the Thames Estuary that could power the equivalent of all the houses in Kent and East Sussex.

The full development, costing up to £1.5bn, will require up to 270 wind turbines to generate 1,000 megawatts and would connect into the National Grid's transmission system in Kent. The turbines would be located in the outer Thames Estuary, more than 20 kilometres offshore and equidistant from the coasts of Essex and Kent. Due to the distance of the wind farm from the shore, there is expected to be little visual impact from the coastline.

via TriplePundit
Technorati tag: Wind Power

Shifting into neutral

The BBC on going carbon neutral

Technorati tag: Carbon Neutral

Off-Grid's huge list of links

To go through later, a lot of links to green and related sites.

Technorati tag: Links

Even Greener Bike

The pollutants produced by a bike are infinitessimal compared to those spewing out the back of a car. However, you can go one step further and use Soy based lubricant instead of the usual chain oil. I don't know whether it's available in this country though. At present my bike gets by on no chain oil because I keep forgetting to clean and lube it.

via Metaefficient

Technorati tag: Lubricant, Cycling

Bicycle Race

It's Bike Week in Manchester soon. Somehow I don't think the council will close roads to cars so that cyclists can "converge along 17 paths from the suburbs to the center of the city".

Technorati tag: Cycling, Transport

Green8

The G8 conference, to be held in Gleneagles next month, will at least be carbon neutral. Whether it can achieve anything else is up to the participants and how many of their promises they keep.

Technorati tag: Carbon balancing, G8

Changing world

Satellite photos from across the decades have been collected to show the way the world has changed since the seventies. The images acompanying the article are amazing.

Technorati tag: Satellite, Environment

Truths

The National Physics Laboratory in London has come up with a scheme to make satellite observations of the Earth's surface more accurate and silence the naysayers who use discrepancies to argue against human involvement in global warming. The Truths satellite has a 99.999% perfect radiometer. Readings taken using this device can then be used to calibrate devices on other satellites when they pass over the same area. The sensitivity and resolution of the device also means that pollution can be tracked with pin point (well, tennis court, but that's not bad from orbit) accuracy.

Technorati tag: Satellite, Global Warming, Pollution

British Wind

I may have to temper my lingering hatred of British Gas with today's news that they're to sell mini wind turbines to householders. About the size of, and far less ugly than, a satellite dish, the mini turbines produce a peak output of 1kw. They probably work best on detached or semi detached houses, but I'd love to see rows of them pop up on the terraces around here.

via city hippy

Technorati tag: wind power, microgeneration