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The Evergreen State for an Evergreen World
We here in the Evergreen State take pride in our state. Whether it's the white crest capped waves of the Pacific, the salmon of Puget Sound and our rivers, the green forests of our state, or the snow covered mountains, Washingtonians have a deep appreciation for the environment. We want to solve the climate crisis not only for us, but so that the earth can be sustained.
I joined the We Campaign hoping that I could meet people actively working towards our goal. I have come to realize that some of us have joined this campaign to 'add' as many 'friends' possible to his or her profile. A Green Facebook/Myspace..
I ask of anyone who reads this post to tell me what he/she is doing to spread awareness of the We Campaign. What actions are being taken to let elected officials know how "WE" feel about our nation's future energy needs/sources. Let us take action, not compete for profile popularity.
I ask of anyone who reads this post to tell me what he/she is doing to spread awareness of the We Campaign. What actions are being taken to let elected officials know how "WE" feel about our nation's future energy needs/sources. Let us take action, not compete for profile popularity.
DOE is funding the development of equipment that will allow solar power systems, such as this system atop San Francisco's Moscone Center, to interact more effectively with the power grid.
Credit: SunPower Corporation
DOE announced on August 12 that it plans to invest up to $24 million over a number of years to develop products that connect solar power systems with the electrical grid in an interactive way. DOE has selected 12 industry teams that will receive $2.9 million in current fiscal year funding to develop conceptual designs and market analyses for such Solar Energy Grid Integration Systems (SEGIS) projects. The projects will focus on solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and will involve such efforts as developing systems that can communicate with an interactive utility grid and advanced power meters to respond to power price changes over the course of a day, systems that can work with energy storage devices and "smart" appliances to respond to utility price signals, and systems that can interact with building energy management systems.
The goal is to maximize the value of PV systems and offer consumers greater control over their electric consumption and costs. In the future, and subject to congressional appropriations, additional funding will be provided for the projects that achieve the most promising technological advancements while demonstrating a high likelihood of commercial success. The SEGIS projects are integral to President Bush's Solar America Initiative (SAI), which aims to make solar energy cost-competitive with conventional forms of electricity by 2015. See the DOE press release and the SEGIS information on the SAI Web page of DOE's Sandia National Laboratories.
Credit: SunPower Corporation
DOE announced on August 12 that it plans to invest up to $24 million over a number of years to develop products that connect solar power systems with the electrical grid in an interactive way. DOE has selected 12 industry teams that will receive $2.9 million in current fiscal year funding to develop conceptual designs and market analyses for such Solar Energy Grid Integration Systems (SEGIS) projects. The projects will focus on solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and will involve such efforts as developing systems that can communicate with an interactive utility grid and advanced power meters to respond to power price changes over the course of a day, systems that can work with energy storage devices and "smart" appliances to respond to utility price signals, and systems that can interact with building energy management systems.
The goal is to maximize the value of PV systems and offer consumers greater control over their electric consumption and costs. In the future, and subject to congressional appropriations, additional funding will be provided for the projects that achieve the most promising technological advancements while demonstrating a high likelihood of commercial success. The SEGIS projects are integral to President Bush's Solar America Initiative (SAI), which aims to make solar energy cost-competitive with conventional forms of electricity by 2015. See the DOE press release and the SEGIS information on the SAI Web page of DOE's Sandia National Laboratories.
Link
Written by Jaymi Heimbuch
Semiconductor solar cells absorb sunlight from the visible spectrum, ignoring ultraviolet and infrared rays, which limits how much energy a solar cell can create from sunlight. But a new material made by researchers in Spain throws titanium and vanadium into the mix so it can utilize infrared and potentially boost efficiency of solar cells.
The new material provides a "stepping-stone" for electrons to move from one energy level to another as they absorb photons, allowing more photons of different energy levels (and thus different parts of the light spectrum) to be utilized. So while some efficiency research goes into breaking down what is absorbed into specific wavelengths or trapping light for greater absorption, this technology basically casts a really wide net in order to increase how much light can be captured and turned into energy.
Semiconductor solar cells have a theoretical absorption rate of 40% with an actual absorption of about 30%. The new material hasn't been tested yet for just how much it can gather, but it has a theoretical absorption rate of 63%, so the scientists reason that the actual absorption will be higher than semiconductor solar cells. This is a step up from the first "stepping-stone" solar cells that achieved a theoretical capture rate of 57%.
So far, the early versions of the materials match the properties predicted by the researchers to enable it to absorb infrared. Now we just have to wait for the material to be turned into an actual solar cell so we can know just what the size of this improvement is.
Written by Jaymi Heimbuch
Semiconductor solar cells absorb sunlight from the visible spectrum, ignoring ultraviolet and infrared rays, which limits how much energy a solar cell can create from sunlight. But a new material made by researchers in Spain throws titanium and vanadium into the mix so it can utilize infrared and potentially boost efficiency of solar cells.
The new material provides a "stepping-stone" for electrons to move from one energy level to another as they absorb photons, allowing more photons of different energy levels (and thus different parts of the light spectrum) to be utilized. So while some efficiency research goes into breaking down what is absorbed into specific wavelengths or trapping light for greater absorption, this technology basically casts a really wide net in order to increase how much light can be captured and turned into energy.
Semiconductor solar cells have a theoretical absorption rate of 40% with an actual absorption of about 30%. The new material hasn't been tested yet for just how much it can gather, but it has a theoretical absorption rate of 63%, so the scientists reason that the actual absorption will be higher than semiconductor solar cells. This is a step up from the first "stepping-stone" solar cells that achieved a theoretical capture rate of 57%.
So far, the early versions of the materials match the properties predicted by the researchers to enable it to absorb infrared. Now we just have to wait for the material to be turned into an actual solar cell so we can know just what the size of this improvement is.
Link.
Once again boosting their reputation as a country intent on helping the environment, Spain has announced that they intend to put 1 million electric cars on their roads by 2014. This will be part of the Zapatero government's plan to reduce their use of energy and increase the countries overall energy efficiency.
Spain's minister of industry, business and tourism Miguel Sebastian said Tuesday that the plan should gain approval from Spain's Council of Ministers on Friday, and should then be carried out this year and on through to 2011.
"Electric vehicles are the future and the driver of the industrial revolution," Sebastian said in testimony to a congressional panel. "Every time we ease off the accelerator, we boost national income and employment."
The plan will cost some 245 million euros, and is made up of a total of 31 separate measures. In enacting this plan though, Spain is set to save between 5.8 and 6.4 million tons of oil over the three-year period, this according to industry estimates.
According to Sebastian, Spain has been trying for awhile to cut oil imports. Over the past year alone, Sebastian noted that the country had spent 17 billion euros on oil imports.
Written by Joshua S Hill
Published on July 30th, 2008
Once again boosting their reputation as a country intent on helping the environment, Spain has announced that they intend to put 1 million electric cars on their roads by 2014. This will be part of the Zapatero government's plan to reduce their use of energy and increase the countries overall energy efficiency.
Spain's minister of industry, business and tourism Miguel Sebastian said Tuesday that the plan should gain approval from Spain's Council of Ministers on Friday, and should then be carried out this year and on through to 2011.
"Electric vehicles are the future and the driver of the industrial revolution," Sebastian said in testimony to a congressional panel. "Every time we ease off the accelerator, we boost national income and employment."
The plan will cost some 245 million euros, and is made up of a total of 31 separate measures. In enacting this plan though, Spain is set to save between 5.8 and 6.4 million tons of oil over the three-year period, this according to industry estimates.
According to Sebastian, Spain has been trying for awhile to cut oil imports. Over the past year alone, Sebastian noted that the country had spent 17 billion euros on oil imports.
Written by Joshua S Hill
Published on July 30th, 2008
Link. I'm working on trying to embed any videos I post. Once I'm able to, I'll embed this one.
Ottawa, Ontario's city counselors have unanimously approved the building of a waste-to-energy facility that will daily convert 400 metric tons of trash to 21 megawatts of net electricity. The plant will be able to power about 19,000 homes. That's a whole lot of garbage lighting up a whole lot of homes.
The plant, proposed by PlascoEnergy Group, will use gasification (rather than more commonly used incineration) to generate electricity, and they're hoping they can use a cooler gasification process to lower the cost to a competitive price. The plant will utilize plasma-torch technology to break down trash into syngas - a mix of hydrogen and carbon monoxide - which can be burned in turbines and engines to create electricity. It's an expensive endeavor, hence the worry about getting the process tweaked to lower costs. They're also relying on the right combination of rising costs for traditional electricity and fees collected from the city. Sounds a little risky, but possibly doable. There's probably a few creative financing angles they could toss around too, in terms of trash collecting and whatnot, should the new gasification process turn out to be not be as money saving as they hope.
The facility will be North America's first, but similar plants in Europe and Asia can be used as examples. And the new plant likely won't be lonely for very long. Hawaii also approved $100 M in bonds for a gasification plant using similar technology, and competitor Ze-gen is starting up a pilot plant on a much smaller scale in Massachusetts that will use molten rock to break down garbage. Other waste-to-fuel plants use gasification to make syngas, which is then used to make ethanol. Ottawa's plant, however, would turn it directly into electricity. The plant could be operating in as soon as three years, which isn't a whole lot of time to get their process and plant put together. We'll have to wait and see if they can get all their ducks lined up to make the plant feasible.
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Written by Jaymi Heimbuch
Link.
Via TechnologyReview; Photo via PlascoEnergy Group
Link
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by Ashley Schiller
A business student at the University of Alabama in Huntsville has found that the city of Birmingham could save as much as $1.8 million over 10 years if it could boost its recycling participation rate to 25 percent, reports the Associated Press.
Herve Billiet, 25, recently presented his research to City Hall. Right now, the recycling participation rate in Birmingham is only one percent. Increased involvement would save the city $180,000 a year.
Disposing of trash in a landfill costs the city about $22 a ton whereas selling recyclable materials generates $10 a ton. So reduced landfill waste and increased sales of recyclable materials would allow Birmingham to make a profit.
Billiet suggested the city create a recycling education and promotion campaign. It would initially be expensive of course, but the money would eventually come back to the city, he told AP.
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by Ashley Schiller
A business student at the University of Alabama in Huntsville has found that the city of Birmingham could save as much as $1.8 million over 10 years if it could boost its recycling participation rate to 25 percent, reports the Associated Press.
Herve Billiet, 25, recently presented his research to City Hall. Right now, the recycling participation rate in Birmingham is only one percent. Increased involvement would save the city $180,000 a year.
Disposing of trash in a landfill costs the city about $22 a ton whereas selling recyclable materials generates $10 a ton. So reduced landfill waste and increased sales of recyclable materials would allow Birmingham to make a profit.
Billiet suggested the city create a recycling education and promotion campaign. It would initially be expensive of course, but the money would eventually come back to the city, he told AP.
Some scary news posted today. Link.
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Arctic ice cap could melt by 2070, Russia warns
By Moscow correspondent Scott Bevan
Posted Tue Jul 1, 2008 9:25am AEST
A Russian parliamentary committee has warned that the Arctic ice cap may be gone by 2070, wiping out animal species and displacing the region's indigenous people.
The North Affairs Committee of Russia's Upper House of Parliament has prepared a report which outlines a bleak future for the Arctic.
Committee member Yury Vorobyov has told the Interfax news agency that the thickness of ice in the Arctic Ocean has nearly halved in the past 30 years.
Overall, he says the ice cover has shrunk by almost a third in the past century.
Mr Vorobyov has warned that ongoing melting could disrupt the traditional lifestyle of northern indigenous people as large areas flood, and some animal species including polar bears will become extinct.
He says these dangers have to be taken into account by the Russian Government in its policies for the region.
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Arctic ice cap could melt by 2070, Russia warns
By Moscow correspondent Scott Bevan
Posted Tue Jul 1, 2008 9:25am AEST
A Russian parliamentary committee has warned that the Arctic ice cap may be gone by 2070, wiping out animal species and displacing the region's indigenous people.
The North Affairs Committee of Russia's Upper House of Parliament has prepared a report which outlines a bleak future for the Arctic.
Committee member Yury Vorobyov has told the Interfax news agency that the thickness of ice in the Arctic Ocean has nearly halved in the past 30 years.
Overall, he says the ice cover has shrunk by almost a third in the past century.
Mr Vorobyov has warned that ongoing melting could disrupt the traditional lifestyle of northern indigenous people as large areas flood, and some animal species including polar bears will become extinct.
He says these dangers have to be taken into account by the Russian Government in its policies for the region.
Link.
This maybe a large move in the right direction that could appeal to the masses. I like the progress and can't wait to see what kind of support this gets. Now, we just need to get rid of the coal-fire plants that could/would supply that electricity.
This maybe a large move in the right direction that could appeal to the masses. I like the progress and can't wait to see what kind of support this gets. Now, we just need to get rid of the coal-fire plants that could/would supply that electricity.
I recently went to my local Ace Hardware looking for an electric lawn mower, and decided I would try their $90 push reel instead. I have been thrilled with it! I know push reels come with a terrible stigma, but I have been using it for 2 months now and it has been far easier than my old gas mower. Gas mowers are absolutely filthy. A single gas mower emits 80 pounds of carbon dioxide each year (EPA). No more tune-ups, no more yanking on that string, no more disgusting fuel smell, no more extremely loud buzzing, no more having to buy gas and oil, no more fuel guzzling gas mower!
I haven't had much time lately to get people signed up for the We campaign, but I was able to get a handful of people interested in the campaign at the congressional district caucus. I am using some resources to get people to sign up right now, for example I am having my mother try to get fellow workers to sign up or at least hear about the campaign, and today and tomorrow I'm bringing a fact sheet and signup sheets to my work for people to look over. I think we should brainstorm some ideas to get others signed up as part of the "wave" campaign that ends this month.
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