Archive for June, 2009
More Energy Efficent Lamps Coming to the Market
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009All It Took Was a Supreme Court Ruling, a New President and an Economic Crisis …
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Traffic jam on the I-5 leads to dirty air ... and greenhouse gases. (Flickr/Sandy Kemsley)
With all deliberate speed, the Obama Administration's EPA has approved California's four-year-old request to be allowed to regulate climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions from auto exhaust. Today's decision was somewhat anticlimactic, because the parameters were worked out in mid-May when automakers, state and federal regulators and environmental groups sat down together to hammer out the single national standard that the car industry has long said it wanted. (See how that policy might affect your next car purchase.)
What a difference an administration makes for the nation's environmental groups: Instead of stonewalling for more than two years and then denying California's request for the EPA waiver, President Barack Obama brought the stakeholders together to create something that only conservative and libertarian think tanks could oppose.
"After three and a half years, a Supreme Court ruling [that greenhouse gas is a pollutant] and a change of Presidents, this is finally a done deal," said Roland Hwang of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The decision had been widely expected, and it will give California considerable leverage as the federal rulemaking process begins. The state's Air Resources Board said it will abide by the federal program for the years 2012 to 2016 -- provided it is not weakened by automaker loopholes and closely resembles the agreement announced last month.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson was practically holding hands with automakers when she said, in a statement that "this decision reinforces the historic agreement on nationwide emissions standards developed by a broad coalition of industry, government and environmental stakeholders earlier this year."
Wind: still enough to save the world
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009Back in 2008, Christina Archer and Mark Z Jacobson published data showing worldwide commercial wind potential exceeded world energy use by many times. A new peer reviewed study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences now confirms his, and further shows that this potential is not limited to a lucky few.
Plant-Based Solar Panels to Remove Oil from the Equation
Monday, June 29th, 2009
A solar installation at Nellis Air Force Base: Photovoltaics are poised for big expansion. (Flickr/GravityX9)
"Everybody loves solar, the shiny superstar of renewable energy," reports the Los Angeles Times. "But scratch the surface of the manufacturing process and the green sheen disappears. Vast amounts of fossil fuels are used to produce and transport panels. Solar cells contain toxic materials. Some components can't be easily recycled."
Egads, solar not eco-friendly? Consider the unavoidable fact that solar panels are made from petroleum, and thus dependent to some degree on low oil prices. When the price goes up, as it inevitably will, so will the cost of making photovoltaics. Ironic, isn't it? Dr. David Lee, CEO of BioSolar, calls it a "fundamental contradiction."
BioSolar starts with recycled cotton and castor beans, and produces a protective backing for solar cells. Its product is intended as a competitor to Tedlar, a petroleum-derived film made by DuPont that is the industry standard for silicon-based solar cells. And it's 25% cheaper, too. Green Energy News says the new technology "may possibly revolutionize the solar power industry as we know it today."
The magazine adds that bio-plastics have been tried for solar before, but delicate molecular structures and the tendency to melt when exposed to high temperatures made them "a wavering option for solar-cell fabrication."
According to Dr. Lee, "Oil prices go up and down a lot, and putting a huge new demand on the petroleum industry as solar production increases is just not a good idea." He added that cotton and castor beans are just two of the bio-based ingredients of the company's new product, but the others are proprietary. The bio-film will be on the market in the latter part of 2009; other bio solar products are in the research and development stage, Dr. Lee said.
All solar cells require protective backing, and every square foot of panel requires a square foot of backing. The company is soon to release other bio-based solar parts, including a replacement for the glass top layer of most panels.
A report issued in January by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition says the industry should be doing more to ensure than clean energy doesn't leave a pollution trail. According to the report, a rapid expansion of solar, which uses a lot of materials and processes derived from the computer industry, "has the potential to create a huge new wave of electronic waste" at the end of the panels' 20- to 25-year life. The content includes nanomaterials, whose performance in the environment is largely untested.
8 Surprising Uses for Olive Oil
Monday, June 29th, 2009
How to Plant Vegetable Seeds with Success
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Figfip? That would be Food Gardeners' Fine Points (FGFP), a new occasional series inspired by my friends Matt and Shannon, who wrote:
"We have some very exciting news. After nearly three years on the waiting list, Shannon and I now have a plot in the community garden next to our apartment building!!!.... Naturally, I have a mile-long list of vegetables I'd like to grow...."
He meant it; it is a mile long, ending with: "Are there any realistic choices for two newbies from that list? We're prepared for failures and setbacks. But we're also giddy with enthusiasm."
Who could resist an appeal like that?
M&S may be newbies but they're certainly not dummies. They already have the usual gardening manuals and an unusually large ability to conduct web searches. They even have a resident sage at the community garden.
But a lot of "how to" leaves out choice tidbits. Some information does get dated. And I don't always agree with the sage, even though he's right with them in Washington, D.C. and I am in New England.
So from now on, when I'm doing something in the garden and it makes me think, "I ought to tell Matt and Shannon about this," I will. And as I have just been planting vegetable seeds, that's where we're going to start.
Success With Growing Vegetables From Seed
*Read the fine print when choosing seeds from retail racks. Most of those pretty envelopes appear to vary only in decoration and price, but in fact there are big differences in quantity and quality. One way to tell at a glance is to see how much information is offered about:
Quantity - Is there a measurement or do you have to feel up the packet?
Viability - Is there a germination percentage , with a testing date? This is more likely with European seeds and those from good mail order sources, but it doesn't hurt to look. Percentages may be anywhere from 65 to 95%, which is obviously relevant, and having a number implies that the retail company tested the seeds before packaging them, always a good sign.
Freshness- There should be a "packed for" year on there. It's usually just a stamp; and it's often stamped right where you're going to tear off the top of the envelope when you try to open the flap and it won't. If the date is on the flap, write it somewhere else on the packet as soon as you get it home (otherwise, if you're anything like me, you'll forget all about it until you're out there in the garden far from the indelible pen you should be carrying at all times but probably aren't).
Planting Instructions - The more detailed they are, the greater the likelihood that the company is eager to have you come back.
Tesla Electric Cars Take Off with $465 Million in Government Funding
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Tesla is getting more interesting by the day. Here's a company that was basically flat on its back just a couple of years ago, plagued by internal strife and trying to sell a then-$92,000 electric Roadster that cost $140,000 to build. That's not my estimation, it's right from the blog of CEO Elon Musk, who was responding to a suit by an embittered co-founder.
I recently drove a Tesla Roadster (pictured) owned by the Vulcan Motor Club on a jaunt through rainy rural New Jersey, and enjoyed it more than similar rides in even more expensive high-end supercars by Aston-Martin and Lamborghini.
And now Tesla is in fast company. The Department of Energy (DOE) announced June 23 that Tesla was one of three recipients — with Ford and Nissan — of $8 billion in advanced technology loan funds. Tesla will get $465 million to build a manufacturing plant for the new ultra-fast Model S sedan in Southern California, and a second battery plant in the Bay Area.
The federal fund is designed to further a very worthy cause: ensuring that the U.S. will be competitive in battery technology. It's quite clear that without federal assistance, we will lose that business to Asia, mostly to China and Korea. And right now it really matters who will capture this market: it is, unquestionably, the future of the auto industry.
I like what Tesla is doing — starting with a high-end vehicle and then, gradually, moving into more affordable markets as the company becomes solvent. Musk has told me that Tesla's third car will be even further downmarket than the Model S. The mainstream carmakers are approaching it differently, but they're plugging in, too.
Even the skeptics are starting to gain confidence in Tesla's prospects. The company has now delivered more than 500 Roadsters, and is getting a handle on fulfilling the 800 it has pending. Daimler has bought nearly 10% of Tesla, and the two companies are working together on batteries for electric Smarts.
The largest recipient of the DOE funding is Ford, which got $5.9 billion to increase the fuel efficiency of a dozen popular models, from the Taurus to the Focus, Mustang, Escape and F-150 truck. The upgrades include very economical direct-injection EcoBoost engines, electrically assisted steering, start-stop technology and six-speed transmissions. Ten factories will get upgrades.
Save $28 on Cleaning Products
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Try this easy green cleaning recipe, and get a healthier, cleaner home. Then try 7 smart uses for vinegar. Bang for the Cluck: Turning Waste Chicken Feathers into Car Fuel and Other Useful Stuff
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
If there is any more worthless waste product than the four billion pounds of chicken feathers produced by our enormous appetite for poultry products, I don't know what it is. It would be great if we could stuff them into pillows, but down comes from geese.
Believe it or not, we turn feathers into low-grade animal feed by mixing them with water in a giant and inefficient pressure cooker. Scientist Walter Schmidt of the Agricultural Research Service in Maryland thinks he can make paper, cloth, plant pots and, yes, auto parts out of them, but it might take a while. Australian researchers want to wear chicken feathers, making them into high-tech sweat pants.
The keratin fiber in chicken feathers is even stronger and more absorbent than wood, and it breaks down in landfills far faster than does plastic or Styrofoam. Finding novel uses for chicken feathers is a pet project of Professor Richard P. Wool of the chemical engineering department of the University of Delaware. He had a very original idea: Why not use carbonized chicken feathers — which resemble highly versatile (and tiny) carbon nanotubes — to...store hydrogen for fuel-cell vehicles. Picture very tiny natural sponges, which have a big weight advantage over metal hydride storage of this useful element. How great is that?
Wood enlisted Turkish-born graduate student Erman Senöz in the project, whose results were announced this morning at a conference in College Park, Maryland. "We started three years ago," Senöz said. The pyrolysis process — very high heat without combustion in the absence of oxygen — yields fibers "that are micro-porous, very thin and hollow inside like carbon nanotubes. They start forming at 350 degrees Centigrade, and above 500 C they collapse. We're trying to find the perfect temperature."
By the way, the fiber is from the central quill part, so the fluffy feathers are still available to force-feed livestock. Feather fiber is, of course, very cheap, and the "gas tank" equivalent would be too, costing only about $200. A carbon nanotube tank? How about $5.5 million. Metal hydride tanks, Wool says, are probably $30,000.
This process is not near commercialization, and hydrogen's extremely low density is a big issue. Wool says that, using the team's technology, a car would need a 75-gallon chicken tank to go 300 miles in a car. They're working on it. And the poultry-minded scientists also think they can make bio-based computer circuit boards and hurricane-resistant roofing from the same chicken fibers.
I love the idea of recovering stuff we usually dump into landfills. And since we produce billions of pounds annually, this is one waste stream that really needs to get diverted.
How a 20-Minute Walk Can Solve the Obesity Epidemic (and Why That Walk’s Easier for Some Than for Others)
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
One of President Obama's priorities is overhauling America's health care system, whose costs continue rising at nearly seven times the rate of inflation and currently represent about 17% of our gross domestic product. One reason for these skyrocketing figures is that people require more and more care.
Why? Because we're not as healthy as we used to be. And the prime factor for that is we don't exercise enough. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), only a quarter of Americans exert themselves at recommended levels, while nearly a third don't exercise at all. No wonder obesity is a national epidemic, among young and old alike, and a leading cause of increased incidences of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and even some types of cancer.
Not surprisingly, this inactivity leads to $76 billion -- 10% -- of our nation's annual medical costs. But there's hope. A study released last year determined that those who keep themselves fit file a third fewer medical claims than couch potatoes. And it doesn't take much to get in shape: The CDC estimates that a vigorous, daily 20-minute walk could stop the obesity epidemic in its tracks.
So how do we encourage people to take the initiative? ...