Strange Days

National Geographic's Strange Days on Planet Earth promises to offer simple ways for individuals to change the world and tackle issues ranging from climate change to invasive species.

(And it's hosted by Edward Norton, Fight Club fans.)

Technorati tag: Activism

Green Paper

The Green Party launch their election manifesto today, expanding beyond their obvious base into areas of social justice.

Technorati tag: Election

Reverse

It's a guilty pleasure, but I do enjoy Top Gear. I disagree with Clarkson on just about everything, but he is eternally watchable, and the Little Man is a Casa Spinneyhead favourite. I wouldn't go as far as Transport 2000 and say the programme should be scrapped completely, but there definitely should be a Two Wheels Good or How To Save The World For Free (two programmes I'd like to pitch) as balance.

Technorati tag: Transport

Flat Earth

The Flat Earth Awards, open for voting and to be awarded to the person judged the dumbest environmental naysayer. The website was set up by a bunch of college students as part of a class on climate change and activism

Technorati tag: Environmentalism, Climate Change

Energy Gap

Radio 4 has challenged a British family to live on the same energy as an Indian family and are tracking the results in a series of 15 minute programmes this week. The aim is to highlight the current difference between our countries and also consider the world's requirements as India and China catch up with the West. There's no dedicated page yet, but you can listen to Monday's episode via streaming.

Technorati tag: Energy

Swell Power

Treehugger examines the four main types of wave power, easily the least polluting and- with the two buoy variants anyway- least intrusive form of energy generation.

Technorati tag: Wave Power

Home on the NEC

On Friday, trains and other things permitting, I should be attending the Home Building Show at the NEC. It has a Green Village and, running alongside, the Smart Homes Show. I'll be dividing my time between the two.

Technorati tag: Self Build

Clean Green

It's all well and good going over to biodiesel as a way to free yourself from the oil industry, but you're still burning fuel and pumping something out the back. Is it actually any cleaner?

Yes, according to the study cited by WVOfuels.

Technorati tag: Biodiesel

Power Shower

Hippyshopper isn't happy with their water bill, and has some plans to cut it.

Technorati tag: Water

Not through my bars

A different take to wind power's NIMBY problem. The company running a windmill close to Whitemoor jail have agreed to turn it off early in the morning because flickering shadows from the spinning blades were aggravating prisoners.

Whitemoor contains prisoners it is best not to upset, including road rage killer Kenneth Noye, Jeremy Bamber who murdered his family, and Barry George, who killed television presenter Jill Dando.

Technorati tag: Wind Power

Auf Wiedersehn, Pet?

A robotic wall laying machine could dramatically change the way buildings are erected. From an eco point of view, the materials used can be changed and complex shapes formed- if the solar ventilation for a pbuilding requires complex ducting the robo-builder can do it from CAD designs- and labour savings can bring the prices down.

Khoshnevis is inspired by the technology’s potential to build dignified low-income housing. “A billion people today do not have adequate shelter,” he says. Using soil dug from the building site and stabilized with cement, the contour crafter could erect inexpensive dwellings customized to a family’s needs.

via Slashdot

Technorati tag: Construction

Smarter than Smart

The G-Wiz promises to be the greenest car to run in the UK. Charge it up overnight for daily running costs as low as £1.64. You don't even need to worry that the electricity used is unsound, the company promises to carbon balance the production, shipping and first 16,000 miles of running. Whilst being carbon neutral in your daily transport you can campaign for more green electricity to charge it in its twilight years.

I might even forgive the school run if this is what the mums were turning up in.

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: Electric car, Transport

Compost

Casa Spinneyhead still throws away a lot of perfectly good composting material, so I'm looking at ways to utilise it.

Hippyshopper recommends wormeries, but I'm working on a budget. Recyclemore.co.uk has cheaper options. The Community Composting Network has resources if I wanted to get my neighbours to muck in. Allegedly the council has a scheme where I can get cheap compost boxes, but the number on the website has been disconnected, so that's not much use. They do run the Kerb it green waste recycling service, but we're obviously not in any of the chosen pilot areas.

To conclude- it's off to B&Q I go!

UpdateJeff pointed me to this easy DIY wormery, and I found the Green Cone, designed to speed up the composting through solar heating and insulation and feed the nutrients direct into your soil.

Technorati tag: Compost

Toward the Carnot limit

The Carnot Limit is the maximum efficiency possible for a heat engine. Until now thermoelectric devices have only had an efficiency of 15% of the Carnot limit. However, research with nanostructured materials will allow a new generation of thermoelectric devices to operate nearer to the limit, opening up a whole range potential uses from silent computer cooling to geothermal power.

Technorati tag: Heat Engine

CCL

The Climate Change Levy (Fuel Use and Recycling Processes) Regulations 2005. I'm going to go back and digest this later.

Technorati tag: Climate Change

Solar Campus

A new building on Napier University's Merchiston Campus is to have solar panels installed on one wall that will power 80 of the building's 500 PCs and sell electricity to the grid on the days the building is empty.The University is also going to be using the array to research the efficiency and effectiveness of the panels.

Technorati tag: Solar Power, Green Building

Waterworld

CLIMSystems of New Zealand have released SimCLIM, a program that will simulate sea level changes at various scales. From the press release-

CLIMsystems Ltd., Hamilton, New Zealand (PRWEB) April 7, 2005 -- A new software package has just been released on the World Wide Web that enables coastal zone managers, coastal zone property owners and any other people or organisations interested in coastal zone issues to create scenarios of future sea-level change at global, regional and local scales. The SimCLIM Sea-Level Scenario Generator software, found at http://www.climsystems.com/site/home/, provides an easy-to-navigate windows platform for creating a wide range of sea-level change scenarios using the latest scientific knowledge. The software is unique as it is the first of its type to provide users with the capacity to create scenarios of future sea-level anywhere in the world that take into account global, regional and local components of change.

I'm going to use it to see what conditions would result in a beach on my doorstep, but it will have serioususes for coastal inhabitants and the people who manage our coastlines.

Technorati tag: Sea Levels, Global Warming

Planting on the ceiling

Recommended by Treehugger- Planting Green Roofs and Living Walls. The book details weight bearing requirements and the various other requirements for a thriving lawn on a roof- which will improve insulation in winter and cooling in summer as well as cutting down on the amount of run off water for drainage systems to deal with.

Technorati tag: Architecture, Grass

Long Road

Worldchanging reprints another piece from The Natural Advantage of Nations. It's about just how much we have to do to create sustainable development in the developing world and "sustainable re-development" in the industrialised world.

Technorati tag: Sustainable Development

Rurbanism

An extract from The Natural Advantage of Nations has been reprinted on Worldchanging today. I'm going to go back and read it later.

Technorati tag: Books

Yes, Minister

The Commons environment, food and rural affairs select committee says that, if the Government's grand proclamations about reducing greenhouse gas emmissions are to be taken seriously, the UK should have a dedicated Minister for Climate Change.

via WorldChanging

Technorati tag: Climate Change, Greenhouse Gasses, Politics

Multi Rotor

WorldChanging on a new, more efficient wind turbine design that uses multiple turbines on a single turbine unit.

Technorati tag: Wind power

Recar

Lots of current cars are built to be recycled, but what about older vehicles? After being crushed the larger chunks of metal can be re-used, but that leaves a sludge of smaller parts that can leach toxins into landfills.

CSIRO Minerals are developing methods to clean this sludge up and get the maximum value from it by using mineral processing techniques. At present it's a low margin operation but any number of factors, from rising material costs to more stringent landfill controls, could make it a money spinner.

Technorati tag: Recycling, Landfill

Home Brew

Off-Grid on making your own Biodiesel. I almost wish I had a car so I could try this stuff out.

The book recommended in the post isn't available through Amazon, but you can get How to make Biodiesel

Technorati tag: Biodiesel

Carbon calculator

Work out how many trees a year you need to plant to become carbon neutral.

via Power Frontiers

Technorati tag: Energy consumption, Carbon Neutral

Eco Blogging

Chandrasutra has a long article on eco blogging, with a lot of resources that I'm going to check out later.

Technorati tag: EcoBlog

Recommended Reading

A few books reviewed or suggested by other green blogs

The Natural Advantage of Nations. Reviewed at World Changing

Save Cash and Save the Planet. Suggested by Hippyshopper.

A Good Life. Also from Hippyshopper.

Technorati tag: Books

Grass

I remember haytime. the bales produced on the local farms generally went to produce winter feed and bedding. An American professor is arguing that grass from marginal farmland could be turned into pellets and used as fuel.

via Slashdot

Technorati tag: Bio Fuel

Green State

Washington state now has a law requiring that new municipal buildings incorporate energy saving and "green" technologies. It costs more up front, but the long term savings more than cover it. The law's supporters also promised a better environment for those who work and study there, which is probably true, but a lot harder to argue in any concrete way.

Technorati tag: Sustainable development

The Party Party

The Greens stand even less chance than the Lib-Dems of making it into Government, so their election pledges are things they plan to do anyway.

Green Party Website

Technorati tag: Politics, Election, Green Party

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

Clever Glass

Vanadium dioxide coated glass can switch from transparent to reflective (of infra red) at a set outside temperature. Thus on a winter day it could allow all light through, for as much warming and SAD treatment as possible, whilst on a summer day it could reflect IR as soon as it reached 25C. This could lead to huge savings on air conditioning. Coupled with planned ventilation, it could do away with it all together.

Technorati tag: Glass

Harnessing the power of waves

Another report about plans to create tidal power systems. San Francisco and New York seem well placed for such stations, but the testbed has been running in the Orkneys.

Technorati tag: Tidal Power

EPRI

The Electric Power Research Institute.

via Slashdot (which has a few interesting wave power links.)

Technorati tag: Renewable Energy

Sustainablog

A quick reciprocal link to Sustainablog. I really need to get an EcoHouse specific blogroll going.

Technorati tag: Eco Blogs

Targets

The NAtional Audit Office says that the Government is well on its way to having 10% of energy produced by renewable sources by 2010, but at a cost to consumers that could be reduced if it put as much effort into reducing consumption. Of course, the best solution would be to concentrate on both. All new build houses should be required to hit energy efficiency targets and have solar tiles on their roofs.

Technorati tag: Renewable Energy

Biodiesel wars

Biodiesel is on its way to becoming a mainstream fuel in the US. However the plans for mass production are alienating some of the pioneers

Technorati tag: Biodiesel

Micro Hydro

Small villages in the Philippines are becoming electrified thanks to micro hydroelectricity systems that they have sorted out for themselves.

via Alternative Energy blog

Technorati tag: Renewable Energy