Make your own fuel

A page of links dedicated to making your own fuels. Everything from Hydrogen to biodiesel.

Technorati tag: Bio Fuel

Red Team

The Design Council's Red Project aims to find ways for homes to become less energy intensive and combat climate change.

One third of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions come from residential households. Householders could reduce this by making their houses more efficient, generating their own energy, switching suppliers or simply switching off.

We think people need a bit of well designed help. Bills are confusing, energy use is invisible and installations are tedious.

Our project proposes new products, services and policies to help householders save energy – and reduce C02 emissions.

Here’s our design-for-energy manifesto. We want YOU to take a look and tell us what you think needs to happen.

via WorldChanging

Technorati tag: EcoHouse, Energy Consumption

Biomass energy report criticised

Biomass, which sees crops grown for use as environmentally friendly fuels, should be used to generate heat, a year-long task force study concluded.

But critics say the recommendations do not go far enough as energy suppliers are not required to source a percentage of heating fuel from renewable sources.

Technorati tag: Biomass

Energy Saving Week

It's Energy Saving Week. The theme is "Save your 20%" though that could be tricky given we're already using as little energy as possible.

I'm just off to make sure all the lights have been switched off.

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: Energy Saving

Conspicuous Consumption

Chris Jordan's photos portray the effects of mass consumption. The near abstract piles of crushed cars, discarded phones and unwanted circuit boards have a certain abstract beauty about them, even when you understand the waste and destruction they represent.

Via BoingBoing (I think the increase in traffic is putting a big strain on the server.)

Technorati tag: Waste, Photography

The Blues to get wind powered

Manchester City's stadium will, if plans go ahead, be fully powered by wind, using the country's largest land based turbine, as designed by Sir Norman Foster. They also reckon they'll be able to provide power to 4,000 local homes.

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: Wind Power, Manchester

Rural homes 'the most polluting'

Rural homes are often twice as polluting as those in towns and cities, new figures will show.

A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) study has found that high-occupancy blocks of flats are more fuel efficient.

Detached houses leak heat and people can afford more gadgets, contributing to the greenhouse effect, it suggests.

This will all change when Mum and dad build their eco-house, just you wait and see. (Oh, okay, it won't really, but their eco-house is going to be excellent in itself.)

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

A bike with all mod cons

The Aerorider is being touted as the ultimate commuter bike, though I reckon the extra width and length would be counter productive (but then I commute along Europe's busiest bus route, perhaps on a normal road you wouldn't have to heft your bike around other vehicles as much). I see it more as the ultimate touring bike instead. In fact it would probably be better with the built in electric motor removed, unless they'll allow it charge a dynamo and/ or solar cells for those multi day rides.

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: Cycles, Electric vehicles

Get out of youir car and breathe

The air quality inside a car is lower than outside, research has concluded. Using an air conditioner doesn't help matters either because it's just recycling the stale air. The best solution is to wind down your windows. Or get out and get on a bike or foot.

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: Pollution, Cars

Gridlock Britain 'chokes economy'

Traffic congestion on UK roads is costing businesses about £20bn a year as productivity is hit by staff arriving late to work.

The number of cars on UK roads has risen by 70% between 1982 and 2003, according to the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).

This, its latest survey said, has put more pressure on an already creaking transport infrastructure.

ICE is calling on the government to increase funding for transport.

Get on a bike. To be honest, I'm not much earlier to work than if I set off for the bus at the same time, my time saving is on the journey back. But if I set off five minutes later I'm only five minutes later by bike whereas I'm anything up to twenty minutes later by bus because of the rate at which traffic density increases.

Technorati tag: Transport, Congestion

Nuclear power PR campaign debunked

Anti-nuclear activists have replied to advocates of nuclear power with a comprehensively damning report, "Nuclear power - no solution to climate change".

[....]

The report says that a doubling of nuclear power output by 2050 would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by just 5%, while increasing the hazards of potential nuclear accidents, terrorism, nuclear proliferation and the still unsolved problem of waste storage. The report outlines that the solutions to greenhouse gas emissions from energy production lie in energy efficiency and renewable energy generation, such as in wind, bio-energy, solar and tidal power.

Pretty much what I've been saying.

More at Gigajoules

Technorati tag: Nuclear Power

Prize schemes to boost recycling

Prize draws, lotteries and scratch cards, are among a range of schemes to encourage households to recycle their rubbish which are being launched.

Around 50 ideas are being piloted nationwide to find out which most successfully encourage recycling.

Environment minister Ben Bradshaw said the government wanted new ways to encourage the practice and help people "to fit recycling into their lives".

Technorati tag: Recycling

Passive Solar

A good introduction to passive solar heating, in this case highlighting how it can raise the efficiency of greenhouse gardening.

Technorati tag: Passive Solar

Nuclear Future?

What inspired the Government's U-Turn on nuclear power. I used to be pro-nuclear but just looking at the cost of it, irrespective of other issues, it can't be justified any more. For the cost of one nuclear power station the Government could fund enough energy saving schemes to save two power station's worth of requirement (that's a guess, if anyone wants to fund me to find out how close I am I'll take donations).

Technorati tag: Nuclear

Eco City Roundtable

The leaders of more than 20 world cities are meeting in London to swap ideas on combating climate change.

Berlin's investment in solar cells, Mexico City's taxi fleet upgrade, and Toronto's use of lake water cooling for its buildings are all on the agenda.

Technorati tag: Cities, Energy Saving

The greening of Casa Spinneyhead- month 1

One month in to living at the new house and we have taken a few green steps. All the lights are now low energy, and we have Eco Balls-



They're each about the size of a tennis ball and filled with little pellets that make a pleasant rattling sound when shaken. Clare claims to have seen them fizzing in the wash but I have to say I've never looked that closely. Our clothes now smell of nothing, which is nice, and are just as clean as ever. They should last anything up to a thousand washes and save us hundreds of pounds. Find out more at www.ecozone.co.uk.

The house doesn't have recycling bins. There are bottle banks quite close by, but I'm lazy and want to be able to just walk out of the house and throw the bottles into one of the skinny bins like other people on the street can. I've called and asked to have some supplied, but none have turned up and it's possible they won't supply them to blocks of flats, which is annoying. There's a great pile of paper waiting to be shredded and thrown in a bin should one ever arrive.

On the keeping things local front there are four butchers and a fish mongers within walking distance and they all supply quality stuff with the minimum of packaging. There's also a whole food shop in Withington and a number of small grocers. Hopefully we can cut supermarket purchases to a minimum if not stopping them altogether.

We're going to work out another set of targets for this month and announce them as soon as they're decided. Stay tuned.

Technorati tag: Going Green, Casa Spinneyhead

Depolymerisation

The possibility of turning waste into fuel could be one step closer. There have been reports that the pilot plants are experiencing problems, but I'm optimistic.

Technorati tag: Depolymerisation

Two tales of doom

I'll get these out of the way quickly-

Arctic ice is melting at record levels, which could lead to positive feedback for global warming.

Acidic oceans threaten marine food chain. As if the seas didn't have it bad enough already.

Technorati tag: Ocean, Global Warming