Definitely NOT Contented Cows
75-80 percent of distillers grains - the leftover grains from making ethanol from corn - are now fed to dairy and beef cattle. This is good news for the distillers, who have found a new market for their waste, but is it good news for consumers of milk and beef?

According to this article in The Coloradoan, this could mean more e. coli and more downer cattle, because cows, as any child could tell you, are made to eat grass, not corn or corn-waste.

Governors At Odds In Energy Debate
Whether or not there’s any such thing as “green coal” seems to depend on whether you’re the governor of a coal state or not. At the recent National Governor’s Association winter meeting in Washington on 2/23, heads of states argued about this and other issues that will impact their states’ economies and the health of their citizens. Governors: Include Coal in Energy Debate.

An LED Lamp That Runs on Gravity
With a little help from a human hand to lift a weight every four hours, this LED lamp will last for 200 years. Young designer Clay Moulton says that his innovative light has the lumens of a 40 watt bulb and ages to a natural-looking light.

Although it might be a little awkward to adjust the weight ever four hours, the concept of this lamp is very promising and shows what can be accomplished when inventors think outside the box. Read more about Gravia: LED Lamp Lit by Gravity Lasts 200 Years, Never Plugs In.

Storing Sunshine for Cloudy Days
One of the most often cited drawbacks of home solar power is the fact that it doesn’t work unless the sun shines. So, on cloudy days, especially when there are a few in a row, conventional power kicks in and the homeowner is back on the grid.

Sharp wants to change that with its new lithium storage battery that can hold up to 18kwh of power. The new battery will be a boon to those with home solar, some of whom have cobbled together makeshift battery systems. Read more here: Sharp Developing Home Solar Power Batteries

New Solar Brush Technology Is a Giant Leap Ahead
Bloo Solar’s new solar brush, uses “billions of vertically grown nano cables on a thin film” to soak up the sun’s rays throughout the day from dawn to dark. This arrangement increases the surface area by an amazing 700% over traditional thin film solar panels.

What’s even more surprising in view of the increase in area, the solar brush technology uses 90% less material than conventional silicon based panels. This means significantly lower cost to produce with a higher return on power generated. Read about this innovative approach to solar technology at the Practical Environmentalist’s blog post  Bloo solar: Solar is Getting Cheaper…Again
Batteries Not Included Because You Don’t Need Them
Corgi’s new battery-free remote controlled car is a revolutionary new concept in toys. Powered by a hydrogen fuel cell which relies on solar power and water, this little auto has zero emissions but lots of appeal to kids and parents alike.

Corgi says the car, which can be refueled by water, also comes wrapped in recycled materials. Parents might also like the idea of their kids playing with something that teaches important lessons about alternative energy and how even kids can help the environment by using it. Read about how Kids Go Green With Revolutionary New Eco-Friendly Radio Controlled Toy Car.
Galapagos Islands Wind Power  Project Is Online
On the site of the worst oil spill in the history of the Galapagos Islands, 3 wind turbines are generating 2.4 megawatts of power, enough to cut the islands’ dependence on diesel fuel in half, the first step in a plan to supply the 30,000 residents with renewable energy.

With its biodiversity and several endangered species, the Galapagos Islands is one of the most famous locations in the history of conservation and science. Rather than threatening this fragile ecosystem, the companies that cooperated on the wind project actually helped it with studies that tracked the habits of endangered petrels, provided for installations that would avoid the birds’ flight paths and even contributed to information that will help support and protect the birds and other species in future. Read First Galapagos Wind Turbines to Halve Diesel Imports here.
Renewable Energy Championed in US Senate
“Every time our country has faced a daunting challenge, we have risen to the occasion. That’s who we are. That’s what we do best,” says Harry Reid, US Senate Majority Leader. Reid was describing his proposal to support legislation that would set aside large tracts of appropriate land to support renewable energy projects such as solar and wind projects.

In addition to creating new jobs, reducing pollution and global warming, Reid went on to say, alternative energy projects will save consumers money and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. More here at Senate Majority Leader Promotes Renewable Energy
Greenest Cities
Popular Science recently ranked the 50 greenest cities in America. Not surpisingly, Portland, Oregon led the list. This Green mecca, dubbed Rose City for its mild climate and long growing season, earned its place partly for generating half of its energy from renewable sources, encouraging its workforce to commute by bike, carpool or public transportation and for having so 35 LEED-certified buildings.

Some of the other cities on the list were a surprise, including New York City. Read America’s 50 Greenest Cities to find out how it got on the list and to see if your city made the cut.

Burning Bush in Namibia

A 1MW electricity plant powered by invasive species of bush will supply electricity, while improving the ecosystem for animals, plants and indigenous people in Namibia. Thinning the bush will add grassland for the cattle that are so important to the native people.

As a side benefit, the project will also produce “Bushbloks”, briquettes that can be used to fuel cooking stoves as an alternative to cutting down trees, which is the common method used now. Because of this, deforestation is becoming a major problem in many parts of Africa. Read about this Burning Bush Project here.

A Green Steam Engine That Runs On Almost Anything

According to the inventors, you can build this engine yourself, run it on anything from waste heat to solar power, and power boats, generators, heat pumps, air conditioners, etc. Lightweight and compact, the Green Steam Engine could even be used in vehicles and at 5 lbs, can fit into small spaces where other engines would be too large.

At GreenSteamEngine.com, you can read about its patented method of converting reciprocating movement into rotary movement.

Call For Climate Change Action From Top Brands
Twelve of the world’s leading brands have called for a greater than 50 percent gas emission reduction by 2050. The 12 companies, including Sony, Allianz, Nike and Nokia, met at the WWF Climate Savers Conference at Sony headquarters in Tokyo.

Their declaration is the most far-reaching one yet from the business community and also declares that emissions must peak and start to decline within the next 10 to 15 years. That Leading Brands Call for Action on Climate Change is a very encouraging start to what could be a trend in the business world.

Shopping For a Better World With Carbon Offsets
Eco-conscious shoppers at the Stroemmen Storsenter Mall outside Oslo, Norway can do more than bring cloth bags to pack their groceries in. They can also buy CERs, UN approved carbon emission reduction certificates, and they’re going fast.

Individuals and small business firms are purchasing the certificates as fast as they’re offered. This will certainly help Norway’s effort to be carbon neutral by 2030. Norway Mall Offers Shoppers Greenhouse Gas Credits has more on this story.

Auto Technology Pulled From Thin Air

Hard to believe, it’s true, but this car that runs on air may be a reality soon. French developer, Guy Negre and Tata Motors of India have been working on their concept for over a decade and are ready to produce a model for in-town driving and one with a longer driving range due to an additional diesel or ethanol fuel tank.

There are already prototype models of the MiniCat and CityCat (the CAT is for Compressed Air Technology) and plans for a stripped down model with no top, windows or backseat. At a projected price of around $6,000, the MiniCat would be a viable alternative to higher-priced hybrids. A Mighty Wind? Compressed-Air Car Idea Gains Tailwind With Tata Backing has more on this intriguing concept car.

Leading Wall St. Banks Establish The Carbon Principle

Are financial institutions going green, or are they just worried about the bottom line? It would appear that both concern for the environment and for their investors’ portfolios has led to an unusual dialogue between banks, utility companies and environmental groups. For the first time, these three groups have consulted each other in order to come up with a model to help lenders evaluate the potential risks involved in investing in coal plants.

One of the participants in the conference, David Crane, President and CEO of NRG Enerby Inc. said this about The Carbon Principles, “To move the needle on global warming, clean energy technologies need to be developed, demonstrated and deployed as quickly as possible. Given the capital intensive nature of this challenge, we welcome these carbon principles as a sign that America’s leading financial institutions are ready to support a massive increase of investment in clean energy solutions…” Read More

Fuel Cell-Powered Cell Phones Materializing

Conventional cell phone batteries may be a thing of the past, if several of the emerging technologies designed to power the ubiquitous communication devices can show that they’re safe and practical. Ethanol, methanol and hydrogen are three of the technologies that have been on display at recent trade shows or are being perfected in labs.

Will your cell be powered by biofuel or hydrogen in the near future? Will consumers accept the idea of holding a hydrogen-fueled cell phone next to their faces? According to more than one company, we’ll be finding the answer to that question very soon.

Is There a Plan for Life After Peak Oil?
Yes, but it involves a new generation of biofuels that are an environmental disaster.

In, The Last Straw, George Monbiot says, “Now they might start sitting up. They wouldn’t listen to the environmentalists or even the geologists. Can governments ignore the capitalists? A report published last week by Citibank, and so far unremarked by the media, proposes “genuine difficulties” in increasing the production of crude oil, “particularly after 2012.” Though 175 big drilling projects will start in the next four years, “the fear remains that most of this supply will be offset by high levels of decline”.

While controversial, the theory that oil production has peaked and/or is declining has many backers, who believe that we need a plan to replace fossil fuels sooner rather than later. The US has no plan, but the plan that European governments have may be worse, because it relies on biofuels.

Xynergy Plans to Open Restaurant Powered by its New Type of Hydrogen Generator Which Runs on Water

The company has announced that it will open its first restaurant in Boulder, Colorado, home to many eco-conscious eateries and eco-citizens. The restaurant will be “green-themed” and will be centered around Xynergy’s still secret hydrogen generator which runs on water.

Xynergy also intends to showcase a new refrigeration method at the restaurants and claims to have the “only technology in the world that can turn water into power in a cost efficient manner,” according to this article in Marketwire.

This “Boxed Set” Could Have a Big Effect On Your Personal Environment

It’s 31″X 47″ and can be carried by two people. Open it up and furnish your apartment. Honest! Although you can’t buy this Casulo modular set-up yet, it will soon be available in Europe. As these photos show, it holds an armoire, a desk, a height-adjustable stool, two more stools, a six-shelf bookcase, and a bed with a mattress.

As many people shift from rampant consumerism to a more frugal and simple lifestyle, furnishings may well trend toward environmentally thrifty items that don’t use as much of the earth’s resources. Well-suited to students and apartment dwellers, best of all, with the Casulo box, you wouldn’t have to borrow your friend’s gas-guzzling pickup truck to move.

Biofuel demand leading to human rights abuses, report claims

According to a group of international environmental groups, human rights abuses should be added to the toll that producing palm oil and other biofuels wreaks on the countries where it is being encouraged. They ask that politicians from European nations reject proposed targets for expanding biofuel use and instead turn to more earth-friendly renewable energies. As Jessica Allred reports in the Guardian of 2/11, here’s one more reason not to jump on the biofuels bandwagon without studying the ramifications.

10 Gigantic Solar-Powered Projects

From a 1,000 year old British castle to a recently completed skyscraper in New York City’s Time Square to solar “fields” in Germany and Spain, solar power projects are powering homes and businesses and reducing CO2 emissions. One reason for this explosion in solar projects is the increased efficiency of solar cells and panels. They’re thinner, less expensive and don’t all depend on silicon.

While most of the projects use conventional solar panels, some of them, including a house that is powered with a hybrid solar/hydrogen system, are driven by cutting-edge technology.One project, The Girassol Project, in Portugal, will have over 150,000 solar panels in both fixed and heliotracking positions. Girassol mean “sunflower” in Portugese. Lisa Zyga’s article at Inventor Spot is here.

Age of Green Economics Is Upon Us: U.N.

The Industrial Revolution with its shift to mechanization and greater productivity caused perhaps the most enormous change the world of humans had ever experienced, greater even than the recent Technology Revolution. According to Secretary General of the UN Ban Ki-Moon, we’re poised for a Green Revolution which will rival and maybe even surpass it.

Global investment in green energy will probably reach $1.9 trillion by 2020, an enormous outlay of funds and a sure sign that there has been a shift in global acceptance of the possibilities of green technology. Alternative energy investment in wind and solar is a major part of that investment. Many in the green energy movement are asking for greater cooperation and global agreement according to Andy Stern’s Reuters report of February 7th.

Battling the Cold With New Air-Source Heat Pump

For those of us who live in cold climates, heat pumps aren’t considered very practical. Better suited to warmer areas where they are used as air conditioners and take the place of furnaces, heat pumps are considered add-ons or supplementary heaters if they’re used at all in the northern latitudes.

But Hallowell International’s Duane Hallowell wasn’t willing to accept that and has built a unit that is three times more efficient than resistance heating, requires no digging, and can operate in temperatures as low as 30 below! His Maine company produces the Acadia heat pump, which Tyler Hamilton of the Toronto Star says is a promising alternative to natural gas and other fossil fuel technologies.

Genuine Progress Indicator From “Redefining Progress”

In the United States, the Gross Domestic Product is considered an indicator of how well the country is doing financially and socially. Basically, the GDP defines progress as “how much the nation is spending.” This would be all well and good if spending and buying were the only things that indicate progress or social well-being, but they’re not.

This is why “Redefining Progress” has come up with its own term for the tool they use to determine the nation’s financial and social condition. They call it the “Genuine Progress Indicator” and they’ve used it to generate this GPI Report based on some of the same indicators that the US government uses, and some things that perhaps the government should consider in its next report.

Lots of news about renewable energy this week, including this item from CarbonConservation.com. With the help of carbon offsets like the ones from 4offsets.com, Papua, Indonesia is saving its forests and supporting the local economy at the same time. Plans for palm oil plantations to feed the bio-diesel demand that would have stripped Papua of its forests were underway with the blessing of the Indonesian government. Now, however, those plans are on hold, because carbon trading with offsets appears to be a better way to help the economy and the rainforest without destroying the rainforest ecosystem.

Using corn to produce ethanol isn’t the way to reduce greenhouse gases, researchers from Science Magazine say, and would actually result in almost twice the emissions of the gasoline it replaces. The study shows that land-use changes, especially using good cropland to grow corn and later other crops for fuel, will only worsen global warming. This kind of data needs to be taken into account before we get too much farther down the road to the biodiesel rush.

By 2020, all new residential buildings in California will have to be net-zero-energy homes, according to new rules from the California Energy Commission. And by 2030, that will apply to commercial structures also. This applies to new construction only, although there are plans to require retrofitting at time of sale for existing structures, similar to the ones already in place in Berkely and San Francisco. Some of the energy-saving features that will be incorporated into the new homes such as photovoltaic panels for heat and hot water and energy efficient wall and cooling systems, have already been demonstrated in several model homes.

Solar farm projects in Ontario and PV manufacturing in British Columbia are proving that Canada is not too far north to benefit from the sun’s energy via the PV industry. Industry in Sault St Marie will be able to use power from “flat plate” panels that will feed power directly into the municipal grid. And in Burnaby, BC, Day4 Solar Power is producing solar panels for the German and European market. With one installation already in place in Germany and two more in production, Day4 is fueling the Burnaby economy with jobs and material procurement.

This last item might appeal to those of us who have trouble throwing anything away. Several green-lifestyle bloggers aren’t throwing away anything, including their trash. Instead, as reported in CNet.com, they’re stashing it in their basements, garages and even their houses, so that they can record it, videotape it and blog about it. Some of them even have worm bins to digest their food-waste, which could result in some nice compost for their gardens next spring.

Of course, this is all in an effort to reduce, reuse and recycle by being more aware of what products come into their homes and how the product or its wrapper impacts the environment as part of the waste-stream. They’re all trying to reduce the size of their carbon footprint, which is what we all need to do in anyway we can.

You may remember my “When Green Energy Isn’t” article from June, when i pointed out a few flaws in the whole biofuels scenario.  When you burn ethanol, you produce CO2, when you make fertilizer to grow the corn, use tractors to plow the fields, ferment corn to make the ethanol, you are generating CO2.  The only real question here, is how much CO2 that you are generating compared to gasoline and traditional diesel?

Well whatever that answer is, a new study out of Princeton, published in Science, demonstrates that when clearing of land used for biofuels is counted in the equation, they generate twice the CO2 as would gasoline.  Joseph Fargione, lead author of another paper, also published in Science says ”The clearance of grassland releases 93 times the amount of greenhouse gas that would be saved by the fuel made annually on that land”.  The short story is that growing crops for biofuels replaces vegetation that actually removed carbon from the air.  This means all the carbon stored before biofuel farming is now in the air as CO2 and the carbon that is being taken from the air by the crops is being used to burn as biofuel putting that CO2 right back into the atmosphere.

I’ve said it before, i’ll say it again: We can’t just shift to a fuel that has a smaller carbon component, we need a solution that has little or no carbon dioxide emissions.  Moving CO2 around so that an industrial process, such as making biofuels, wastes more energy and emits more CO2, while it’s end products, biodiesel and ethanol bost a lower CO2 ouput than crude oil derived fuels. It’s not just bad policy and a threat to world food supplies, Bio Fuels are the Big Lie of this new century.  Sure they keep the US from needing Middle East Oil, but that’s a fight for commerce or against terrorism, not a fight against CO2.  Don’t fall for the “Biofuels” wolf, wearing sheep’s clothing.

Don’t gimme that look!  I’m not saying that we need to ban the hot shower or even to shower less, though we probably need to.  I’m just saying that nothing wastes heat, like taking a nice, hot shower and the longer your shower the bigger the waste.  The same is true for baths, laundry and even the hot pasta water your draining into the sink.  Nearly all the energy and heat we put into that water is wasted down the drain.  While conserving water and using less hot water is a great idea, it leaves the problem unresolved. The solution involves recovering the heat from the water as it leaves the home for the sewer lines.

The solution is a heat exchanger that will pull some of the heat from the drain lines, before the warm water leaves the home.  Great idea?  Well it’s not just an idea, it is now available and it’s called GFX Drain Water Heat Exchanger.  This heat exchanger claims to recapture upto 80% of the heat coming thru the drain.  There are different sized exchangers and installation methods that effect the efficiency, but it’s hard to argue with efficiency of over 50%.  The real question is whether it’s cost effective.  The company that is selling them claims they have 30-50 year lifetime, but warrant them for 10 years.  The company Inventroment Energy Solutions has a website at www.gfxstar.ca with lots of information on their product.  It’s certainly worth a visit, just think of all the energy that has been wasted down the drain since indoor plumbing and instant hot water became widespread.

I was amazed the other evening as i watched the news and they focused on the many uses of bamboo.  If you are thinking bamboo fishing rods and huts from Gilligan’s Island, then you know what bamboo looks like.  If you don’t, you cane read more about it here: Wikipedia article on bamboo .  It’s quite remarkable that a “wood” bearing plant can grow over 3 feet in a single day, without needing humans to care for it.  Many of us have seen bamboo used for flooring in recent years.  Bamboo was easily accecpted because it was considerably less costly than wooden flooring, yet provided many of the same visual and tactile experiences of wooden flooring.  Overall bamboo is an excellent substitute for wood, requires fewer resources to grow, creating less environmental impact than current lumbering practices.  And, like wood, it stores carbon.If only a similar solution could be found for the environmental impact of the cotton, used in so many pieces of our clothing.  No, i’m not suggesting synthetics.  

If we could eliminate the chemical and water use dedicated to growing cotton, it would be a good thing environmentally.  Though it would be considerably less good for the people who grow cotton.  There does appear to be a substitute for the ”cotton problem”.  The solution is found in the form of a plant, known as bamboo.  Yes, bamboo! I am not attempting to bamboozle you, this is the truth.  Bamboo can be made into fibers, threads and ultimately fabric that can replace cotton and synthetic fibers in our clothing.  It produces fibers softer than cotton.  Check out one manafacturer’s site: Bamboo Clothes.

Around the world we are seeing bamboo join other fabrics in our closet. So, have we saved the world, with the miraculous bamboo plant?  No! There is no 1 step to that saves the world, it’s a series of steps, by billions of people that will make the difference.  So if we save slower growing trees from industry by supplying fast growing bamboo to the paper, building and garment industry, we reduce environmental impact, not thru sacrifice, but through substitution.