The other biofuel

Biodiesel's been getting all the press lately, but ethanol has been around as a fuel for cars since the early years of motoring. As more Americans realise how stupid and damaging their country's dependence on oil- foreign or domestic- is, the demand for alcofuel grows.

It's also being touted as a potential source of hydrogen because because the "fuel is more easily transported and is not limited to being produced in daylight hours". But Carbon Dioxide is a side effect of the process, an automatic and quite large negative mark.

Technorati tag: Ethanol

Elephant Poop

The Rosamund Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, NY, has a pack of elephants producing 1000lbs of dung a day. This steaming pile, with the output of all the other animals, costs $10,000 a year to take away and be dealt with. On top of that, the zoo has heating bills of $400,000 a year. In a bid to solve one problem and reduce another, they are looking into using all that shit to generate heat.

"Zoos are about conservation and stemming the loss of animals and habitat," Baker said. "But conservation also is about how people use natural resources. This is an opportunity to give visitors the whole picture."

Technorati tag: Biomass, Elephants

Slot Cone Generator

From Norway, a country with a long and rugged coastline made up of all Slartibartfast's squiggly bits, comes a design for harnessing wave power and using it to generate a steady, rather than tide-related, flow of energy. The Slot Cone Generator is a breakwater with four slots on its face. As a wave breaks over it, the water fills reservoirs through the slot. The system doesn't generate electricity directly from the wave's energy, but from the stored kinetic energy of the water carried up to the reservoirs, releasing it over a period of hours. To further increase the flexibility of the system, it's planned to use excess electricity to create hydrogen for fuel cells etc.

via sustainablog

Technorati tag: Wave power, Norway

Inertia

I seem to remember something about buses having a great big flywheel attached to their motors that spun up to speed whilst the bus was moving and effectively stored up energy to be used when it needed to accelerate from a stop. A much more elegant and efficient system has been developed by Vincent Carman. It uses hydraulic pressure to store up energy and transfer it to the wheels. The pressurisation means the engine can always be running at its most efficient without losing power through a geared transmission. Carman reckons his system, currently being tested in two cars, doubles fuel economy with no other changes.

Technorati tag: Transport, Fuel economy

Brief

I did a little investigating of the Green stances of the three major parties, now a CityHippy contributer has a look and lays their cards on the table.

Also: the BBC Election environment page

Technorati tag: Election

Bling

An Op-Ed piece the Boston Globe connects with, and expands upon, the idea of the GUPPY.

I'm not a professional, so I guess I'm just a GUY (some would argue that I'm not even that, more of a GU). But whatever the label, this is what How to Save the World for Free is about- finding a better way to use resources that also serves as a more rewarding, financially, physically and morally, way to live.

via Worldchanging

Technorati tag: GUPPY

Back to school

The Hockerton Housing Project is a residential sustainable development near Southwell in Nottinghamshire. Completed in 1998 it was built using organic and recycled materials and is made to be as near self sufficient and undamaging over the whole life cycle as possible. Now those of us who want to go down the same road can learn from Hockerton, as there is a master class and tour on July 14th. Off Grid has more information.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

GUPPYS

Green urban professionals who are young. A combination of younger families, higher paying jobs and ground and energy costs- and the fact that it's becoming trendy- has led to an upswing in the amount of energy concious building in the US' Northwest.

via Sustainablog

Technorati tag: EcoHouse, Lifestyle

Pitching Green

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has launched Pitching Green, a guide for producers and consumers of Green products. Consumers can download a guide to what all the eco labels mean and suppliers can subscribe to a newsletter explaining how and why to pitch green products.

via CityHippy

Technorati tag: Green products

3 blades to the wind

In a way, the Navy are the obvious armed force to take to wind power. It is part of their heritage, after all. The US Navy has erected four windmills at its most controversial base.

Standing 275-foot tall, with blades spanning 177 feet, the Navy's four new 3-blade wind turbines are among the most noticeable features at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Each of the four turbines will generate 950 kilowatts (kw) of electricity. Together, the four turbines will generate 3,800 kw, and in years of typical weather the wind turbines will produce almost 8 million kilowatt-hours of electricity. They will reduce the consumption of 650,000 gallons of diesel fuel, reduce air pollution by 26 tons of sulfur dioxide and 15 tons of nitrous oxide, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 13 million pounds each year.

Technorati tag: Wind power, Guantanamo

46 Reasons Why

Building Green puts forward a selection of benefits to, erm, building green, for architects to pick and choose the ones relevant to a project and make selling it to the client more likely.

To those of us entrenched in the green building world the benefits seem obvious. Why would anyone choose to build in a way that isn’t comfortable, healthy, and energy efficient? In the process of designing and building green, however, we keep running into others who are not yet as convinced. For those situations, it’s useful to be able to spell out the benefits.

The building owner ultimately calls the shots, so getting that person or group on board early is essential. But not every owner will find the same arguments compelling: a hospital board may opt for green because certain green features promote healing, a commercial office property holding company may incorporate green features to speed the lease-out and thus lower carrying costs, a federal agency may desire green features to improve employee morale and increase job retention.

Even within a single project, different team members often have different reasons for promoting a green agenda. The architect may promote environmental measures because she feels it’s the right thing to do. The facilities manager who will take care of a building may recognize inherent durability and maintenance advantages. And the owner may look strictly at bottom-line financial benefits of green.

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: EcoHouse, Green building

Staying Current

Bring up the subject of banking and you'll quickly hear me moan about how shit NatWest are. Not so much the charges and other bullshit, because I expect those from any bank, but the repetitive incompetence that's seen me in negative feedback cycles of ever increasing charges and overdraft. I'm changing bank sooner or later and the Cooperative has been at the top of my list of potential new homes for my cash for a while.

Hippyshopper draws attention to the Coop's Privilege account, which is full of special offers designed to warm the Green heart. As with all premium accounts, you have to weigh up the pros and cons. Money off Ecotricity electricity is tempting, and an incentive to switch, but travel insurance deals aren't much use to me at the moment. And there's a charge, of course. Discounting the other benefits the interest rate on the account means you have to maintain a balance of over 5 grand to cover the expense of the account. If I had that much money to sit in a bank account I'd find one where it worked for me.

The Coop is still top of my list for my next current account, but I don't want their Privilege account for the time being.

Technorati tag: Banking

John "Solar Panel" Prescott

Tucked away at the bottom of this news piece about a defecting Labour MP-

Elsewhere, four Greenpeace activists tried to install a solar panel on the rooftop of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's home in Hull in protest at the government's energy record.

Update Ananova has more information.

[Ben Stewart, of Greenpeace,] said: "We have people up on the roof who have got the equipment to fit a solar panel.

"We want to draw attention to the Government's record on energy efficiency.

"We have unveiled a banner which says 'Oi Two Jags. Hit Targets, Not Voters'.

"I don't know if Mr Prescott is at home but we think his wife, Pauline, is inside."

Technorati tag: Solar Power, Election

Nuclear Future

Honourable Fiend has a compelling take on the recent upsurge in interest in Nuclear power as "environmentalyy friendly" and a good stop gap towards the zero carbon future.

It's also extremely bad news for the commercial entities which depend on that weapons-power-weapons cycle for their bread and butter. Hence the current US fad idea of building new nuclear power stations "to reduce CO2 emissions while renewables are too expensive". Which is obviously a complete crock of shit since it's only cheaper because it's subsidized to the lug'oles, and it's only subsidized to the lug'oles because it's required to maintain a weapons programme. Plus of course there's the minor issue of waste management.

I worked at Sellafield for a while in the early nineties and there was a certain smugness that must come from being a protected industry. The biggest example of which has to be the THORP programme, which went ahead before the main customer, Japan, had signed any contracts on the understanding that if anything went wrong then the Government would surely underwrite something that had already cost X hundred million pounds rather than risk BNFL collapsing.

Technorati tag: Nuclear Power

Wind/Gas

Another example of an experiment to use surplus wind power to make hydrogen for when the wind isn't blowing. This one is at a University of Minnesota campus that already generates a lot of its own electricity and sells its excess to the grid.

Technorati tag: Wind Power, Hydrogen

Hippy flats

The four flat block at 56 Tomlins Grove, E3 is very nearly self sufficient energy wise. The building has a silent wind turbine on the roof, solar panels and a conservatory for each flat that acts as a miniature power station.

Technorati tag: Energy Efficiency, Green building

Treehugger gets it

I took issue yesterday with the suggestion that Green is expensive, and today Justin Thomas at Treehugger says pretty much the same thing (only a little more eloquently). Got to keep pushing the message- "Saving the world makes you richer."

Technorati tag: Green, Money

That's old ice

A 900,000 year ice core sample should provide more data about the historical correlation of Carbon dioxide concentration to periods of global warming, further discrediting the naysayers.

Technorati tag: Global Warming

No Waste Like Home

It looks like the BBC has had an idea similar to How to Save the World for Free, and they're looking for volunteers to take part in the show.

Technorati tag: Waste, BBC

London Green Lifestyle Show

Scheduled for World Environment Day on June 5th, there is to be a big Green living show in Greenwich. It's a bit far for me to travel, I should check out what similar events MAnchester council has planned.

Londoners will be able to pick up tips on how to make changes at home, work or in their leisure time to help improve their own standard of living and protect and enjoy the environment.

The event is part of Mr Livingstone's aim of making London a sustainable city powered using renewable energy sources, where waste will be minimised and recycled, food waste will be composted and noise and air pollution will be reduced.

Technorati tag: Green Living, London