Windows!
Quick note: the four parts of the house have now been joined together and the clerestory windows have been installed!
PG&E cleans up
West Coast energy company Pacific Gas & Electric has entered into an agreement that will make them one of the cleanest suppliers of energy in the country.
The 15-year agreement with PM Energy's Klondike III Wind Project in Sherman County, Oregon will provide 85 MW of wind energy. The clean energy will account for more than 50 percent of the energy the company provides to its customers.
Read the story here.
Beijing looks to wind up the Olympics
The city of Beijing is building a wind farm, and state officials say it will be ready in time for the 2008 Olympic Games.
The project calls for the construction of 33 windmills at a cost of more than $75 million.
The goal is to have 20 percent of the Olympic venues powered by renewable energy, and to build awareness for the need for sources of renewable energy.
http://www.enn.com/todays-news/13188
Project Phin
At first, the web site looks like the promotional page for a new Kevin Smith movie, but Project Phin is about getting into a different kind of act: clean fuels for common transportation.
Celebrity supporters include Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Sarah Silverman and Jason Biggs. The site advocates support for new flex-fuel cars, and they want to make ethanol a mandatory alternative at the gas pump.
http://www.cleanmyride.org/
Taking Solar Power to Heart
The German city of Frieburg has made clean, renewable energy one of its top priorities.
In 2006, renewable energy accounted for about five percent of the city's power usage. The city's ultimate goal is to increase that usage four-fold by 2020.
Also, one of the coolest looking solar houses you've ever laid eyes on is in Frieburg: it rotates during the day to maximize the exposure of the sun to the house's solar panels.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19849134/
via Wired: Green Dorm
The new issue of Wired magazine, which arrived in my very lucky mailbox yesterday (really, who could resist an image of Martha baking a Wii cake?), was chock-full of interesting tidbits and eco-news.
One of the most interesting, to me anyway, was a blurb about a so-called Green Dorm being partially designed by students of Stanford University. (Above is a SketchUp drawing of the proposed dorm.) According to Wired, "one student created a system of skylights and floor cutouts to illuminate hallways. Another's findings on low-flow showerheads will be implemented campuswide, saving 9 million gallons of water a year." It's great to see schools being so receptive to the ideas of their students. In addition to being incredibly easy on the earth, the school's plan is to make it "the swankiest pad on campus."
Read more here.
Looks like the foam trend is spreading...
... to your seat.
Ford Motor Company and Lear Corp. are going to be using soy-based foam for seat cushioning.
This sounds a lot like a different application of the same product we've seen used in [re]form.
http://www.world-wire.com/news/0707120001.html
Chill out.
Ice (Ice), baby.
Instead of using air conditioning, landlords of several buildings in New York are turning to ice keep their tenants cool.
The method saves money and reduces pollution.
http://www.enn.com/greenb.html?id=1357
Rooftops key to Florida energy goal
Instead of building wind or solar fields, the state of Florida is looking to utilize residential rooftops to achieve its green goals.
If the plan discussed here is implemented, Florida would become the most power plant-populated state!
http://www.enn.com/todays-news/13147
The Cost of Saving Energy
Ever wish you lived in New York?
If you were a landlord in New York city right now, maybe you'd wish you didn't. According to an article in The New York Times yesterday, "Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has created a blueprint, called PlaNYC, to control future development in the city, with a goal of reducing total greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 by 30 percent, compared with 2005 levels." Buildings will need to go on a strict "energy diet" in order to comply with the requirements of the plan, and some of the proposed changes are not inexpensive.
Be sure to check out the graphic that accompanies the story, which outlines changes that can be made in older buildings to reduce their energy consumption.
Green Energy + Free Beer = Drunken Environmentalism
An Eco- Festival in Manhattan this weekend found a progressive way to warm patrons to cleaner forms of energy.
As their robin's egg blue sign stated, "Sign up for Clean Energy and Drink Free beer."
Beer enthusiasts, and perilously drunk individuals, who signed up for electricity from Community Energy, an owner of three wind farms in NY and Penn., received drink tickets for a very economic 4 pints of beer.
Now that's progress.
Read the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/nyregion/15beer.html?_r=1&ref=environment&oref=slogin
Cows that burp less...
...help the environment.
According to a recent report, feeding cows a diet that makes them less likely to burp could impact the effects of global warming.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19680497/
Perpetual energy?
According to manufacturer Steorn Ltd., their device, dubbed the "Orbo," is able to produce free, clean and constant energy. According to the company's website, the device violates the principle of the conservation of energy, which states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed.
The device uses conflicting magnetic fields to create mechanical energy. The claim is disputed by many scientists.
Steorn Ltd. says that they will have validated their claim by the end of the calendar year.
Check it out!
http://www.steorn.com/orbo/claim/
Floating Windmills!
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2649035,00.html
This is exciting news. Windfields used to be limited by geographical boundaries. They were land-bound. And windfields were viewed as eyesores by many, and dangerous to local avian wildlife.
But now? If it works, it expands the amount of real estate available for use as sources of renewable energy.
The company making the floating windmills says it believes that the devices can be installed as far out as waters 700 meters deep!
Boeing 787 Dreamliner
Sunday, Boeing unveilled its new 787 Dreamliner, billed as the most environmentally friendly commercial airliner ever, reports the BBC.
The Dreamliner is made carbon fiber instead of aluminium, which significantly reduces the overall weight of the plane. That means lowered fuel requirements and reduced CO2 emissions, as much as 20% lower than commercial airplanes currently in use.
Detractors, though say that while the 787 is essentially more environmentally friendly, lowered fuel prices will translate to more travelers, and cancel out the benefits by volume.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6282820.stm
Message in a Bottle
Fast Company published an article this month about bottled water, from an economist's perspective. And I have to say, it's pretty shocking. Did you know that last year, Americans spent $15 billion on bottled water? And that our PET recycling rate is only 23%, so the majority of water bottles end up in landfills? The author, Charles Fishman, takes a look into the history of bottled water, and shares the fruits of his research into a few individual companies that produce bottled water. Here's an excerpt:
The Fiji Water plant is a state-of-the-art facility that runs 24 hours a day. That means it requires an uninterrupted supply of electricity--something the local utility structure cannot support. So the factory supplies its own electricity, with three big generators running on diesel fuel. The water may come from "one of the last pristine ecosystems on earth," as some of the labels say, but out back of the bottling plant is a less pristine ecosystem veiled with a diesel haze.
Definitely something to think about.
'Buying into the Green Movement'
An article in today's New York Times style section discusses the notion that many people buy green just to look cool and because they can do it guiltlessly, and it doesn't end up doing much for the environment.
"Critics question the notion that we can avert global warming by buying so-called earth-friendly products," writes Alex Williams, "from clothing and cars to homes and vacations, when the cumulative effect of our consumption remains enormous and hazardous."
Apparently "green is the new black." And it's not actually solving the problem of climate change.
There's a great quote from Chip Giller, founder of Grist.org: "Over even the last couple of months, there is more concern growing within the traditional camp about the Cosmo-izing of the green movement — '55 great ways to look eco-sexy.' Among traditional greens, there is concern that too much of the population thinks there’s an easy way out."
"The assumption that by buying anything, whether green or not, we’re solving the problem is a misperception," says Michael Ableman, an environmental author and long-time organic farmer. "Consuming is a significant part of the problem to begin with. Maybe the solution is instead of buying five pairs of organic cotton jeans, buy one pair of regular jeans instead."
Image credit: Post Typography