Monday, August 18, 2008
Wouldn't you like a solar powered car?
Well, you can have one, for less than twelve pounds. Admittedly, it'll fit in your hand and not be much use for the commute. But you could build a little track and let it race around when the sun shines.
via Jalopnik
Technorati tag: EcoHouse
posted by Ian at 5:40 PM
Well, you can have one, for less than twelve pounds. Admittedly, it'll fit in your hand and not be much use for the commute. But you could build a little track and let it race around when the sun shines.
via Jalopnik
Technorati tag: EcoHouse
Labels: Solar Power
posted by Ian at 5:40 PM
Monday, August 04, 2008
Tidal power gets plugged into the grid
I missed this at the time- it's a couple of weeks old- but Britain's first tidal power generator has been plugged into the national grid. The SeaGen device is in Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland and generates 150 kilowatts- which should rise to 300 kilowatts by the end of the summer. The company behind the installation intends to set up a tidal power farm off Anglesey by 2011.
Technorati tag: Tidal Power
posted by Ian at 11:05 AM
I missed this at the time- it's a couple of weeks old- but Britain's first tidal power generator has been plugged into the national grid. The SeaGen device is in Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland and generates 150 kilowatts- which should rise to 300 kilowatts by the end of the summer. The company behind the installation intends to set up a tidal power farm off Anglesey by 2011.
Technorati tag: Tidal Power
Labels: Tidal Power
posted by Ian at 11:05 AM
Kite Power
Wind turbines are okay, but they're close to the ground, whee wind speeds are relatively low and there can be turbulence to cut their efficiency. If you want to make the most of wind power you really need to go up to 800 metres with a kite.
Technorati tag: Wind Power
posted by Ian at 10:04 AM
Wind turbines are okay, but they're close to the ground, whee wind speeds are relatively low and there can be turbulence to cut their efficiency. If you want to make the most of wind power you really need to go up to 800 metres with a kite.
Technorati tag: Wind Power
Labels: Kites, Wind Power
posted by Ian at 10:04 AM
Friday, July 11, 2008
"Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter"
Many a true word is spoken in jest. And it's being reported that George W Bush signed off from a G8 meeting by being honest about his appalling environmental record.
via Donklephant
Technorati tag: EcoHouse
posted by Ian at 11:21 AM
Many a true word is spoken in jest. And it's being reported that George W Bush signed off from a G8 meeting by being honest about his appalling environmental record.
via Donklephant
Technorati tag: EcoHouse
Labels: George Bush, USA
posted by Ian at 11:21 AM
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Advice for Gordon- save the world by bribing the voters
I don't have any particular interest in Gordon Brown staying on as Prime Minister, he's possibly worse than Blair because he's too much of a coward to actually do anything radical. If he were, however, to suddenly develop a spine and display some of the savvy he claims to have there are ways he could get re-elected, boost the economy and start taking big steps towards hitting carbon dioxide reduction targets.
All he has to do is bribe the electorate.
A small number of people choose to ignore the evidence on global warming and will shout about any environmental initiatives no matter that they often have benefits beyond the green. Let's just ignore them. Others are determined to cut their footprint no matter what. These converts deserve rewarding, and will be as a bonus of what I'm suggesting. The largest number of people, across a range of scepticism to understanding, aren't going green because of the initial expense. Also for many of them when Gordon says "Green" they hear the word "Tax".
Give these people the money to go green.
The recent announcement of a £100billion green initiative by Brown did mention solar power and other grants. What's needed is for these to be big enough to cover most of the cost of installing panels, insulation or whatever is needed, because at present the payback in reduced bills isn't enough. Most people would be better off leaving their money in the bank and earning interest. It would also help the uptake if the rates to sell electricity back to the suppliers were better. Let's say that power companies should write off one unit of power consumed for every unit generated- in summer or on a windy day the house could pay for the electricity it used when it was cloudy or still. After the bill balances then the microgenerator can still sell to the power company at, say, half the price per unit they were being charged.
As important as increasing the grants and improving buy back is selling them properly. Emphasis should be put on giving money back to the consumer and making them independent of big suppliers. Gordon's too dull to do this well, so he'd have to hope he could find a minister who could do it for him. The Tories have already figured out that this is a good sell, with proposals for feeding landfill savings back to households that recycle more. Their ideas about modifying the tax on petrol are based on a similar idea but seem half baked at best.
Of course, per kilowatt generated and ton of CO2 saved an increase in the scope and size of grants for microgeneration will be far more expensive than offshore wind or any other scheme. But no-one ever seems to think about where this money will go. The workers who install photovoltaics, groundsource pipes etc. will all be based in Britain. With a bit of encouragement the companies creating the equipment could all be British as well. They'll all pay tax on their increased income, and boost the economy with their spending, as will the households now with extra cash from the electricity they're saving and generating.
Of course the main reason a scheme like this won't go ahead is because it will do the one thing all politicians are terrified of- it will allow the electorate to become less dependent on the state and the big businesses that pay for all the lobbying.
Technorati tag: EcoHouse, Opinion, Gordon Brown
posted by Ian at 10:10 AM
I don't have any particular interest in Gordon Brown staying on as Prime Minister, he's possibly worse than Blair because he's too much of a coward to actually do anything radical. If he were, however, to suddenly develop a spine and display some of the savvy he claims to have there are ways he could get re-elected, boost the economy and start taking big steps towards hitting carbon dioxide reduction targets.
All he has to do is bribe the electorate.
A small number of people choose to ignore the evidence on global warming and will shout about any environmental initiatives no matter that they often have benefits beyond the green. Let's just ignore them. Others are determined to cut their footprint no matter what. These converts deserve rewarding, and will be as a bonus of what I'm suggesting. The largest number of people, across a range of scepticism to understanding, aren't going green because of the initial expense. Also for many of them when Gordon says "Green" they hear the word "Tax".
Give these people the money to go green.
The recent announcement of a £100billion green initiative by Brown did mention solar power and other grants. What's needed is for these to be big enough to cover most of the cost of installing panels, insulation or whatever is needed, because at present the payback in reduced bills isn't enough. Most people would be better off leaving their money in the bank and earning interest. It would also help the uptake if the rates to sell electricity back to the suppliers were better. Let's say that power companies should write off one unit of power consumed for every unit generated- in summer or on a windy day the house could pay for the electricity it used when it was cloudy or still. After the bill balances then the microgenerator can still sell to the power company at, say, half the price per unit they were being charged.
As important as increasing the grants and improving buy back is selling them properly. Emphasis should be put on giving money back to the consumer and making them independent of big suppliers. Gordon's too dull to do this well, so he'd have to hope he could find a minister who could do it for him. The Tories have already figured out that this is a good sell, with proposals for feeding landfill savings back to households that recycle more. Their ideas about modifying the tax on petrol are based on a similar idea but seem half baked at best.
Of course, per kilowatt generated and ton of CO2 saved an increase in the scope and size of grants for microgeneration will be far more expensive than offshore wind or any other scheme. But no-one ever seems to think about where this money will go. The workers who install photovoltaics, groundsource pipes etc. will all be based in Britain. With a bit of encouragement the companies creating the equipment could all be British as well. They'll all pay tax on their increased income, and boost the economy with their spending, as will the households now with extra cash from the electricity they're saving and generating.
Of course the main reason a scheme like this won't go ahead is because it will do the one thing all politicians are terrified of- it will allow the electorate to become less dependent on the state and the big businesses that pay for all the lobbying.
Technorati tag: EcoHouse, Opinion, Gordon Brown
Labels: carbon footprint, carbon neutral, climate change, eco-building, energy saving, Gordon Brown, Green Building, Household, MP, Opinion, politics, renewable energy, Solar Power, Zero Energy homes
posted by Ian at 10:10 AM
Monday, June 30, 2008
Another step toward algae diesel
An American company called Solazyme has announced that its algae derived biodiesel has passed US standards testing and is compatible with unmodified diesel engines. The process can use waste materials and has a big advantage over farmed biodiesel in that it doesn't take capacity away from food production.
via Jalopnik
Technorati tag: biodiesel
posted by Ian at 3:25 PM
An American company called Solazyme has announced that its algae derived biodiesel has passed US standards testing and is compatible with unmodified diesel engines. The process can use waste materials and has a big advantage over farmed biodiesel in that it doesn't take capacity away from food production.
via Jalopnik
Technorati tag: biodiesel
Labels: algae diesel, Biodiesel
posted by Ian at 3:25 PM
The tropical Atlantic ozone sink
Measurements in the Atlantic have shown that the actions of ultraviolet light and sea spray are scrubbing ozone and methane out of the atmosphere in the area faster than expected. Which is fairly good news, if only we can stop pumping out so many pollutants the Earth may clean the rest up faster than we deserve.
Technorati tag: EcoHouse
posted by Ian at 1:47 PM
Measurements in the Atlantic have shown that the actions of ultraviolet light and sea spray are scrubbing ozone and methane out of the atmosphere in the area faster than expected. Which is fairly good news, if only we can stop pumping out so many pollutants the Earth may clean the rest up faster than we deserve.
Technorati tag: EcoHouse
posted by Ian at 1:47 PM
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Energy independence begins at home
Gordon Brown has announced a £100billion renewable energy plan. The Daily Mail and its readers have reacted as you'd expect, ignoring the boost to the economy from all the jobs created and the opportunities through grants to go energy independent.
So, those of you who can, I'd recommend stealing a jump on the whingers and using their tax money to go off grid. When I researched grants for solar panels last month I found that the existing scheme had been phased out, which was annoying. I'm now willing to give Brown the benefit of the doubt and hope this was because they were gearing up to a new and improved scheme. It isn't easy. I'm not as obnoxiously and knee-jerkingly anti Brown/New Labour as the Mail's readers, but past performance does mark the Government as untrustworthy.
The schemes for householders will be announced later this Summer. I'll be looking out for them and will try to do some number crunching on them when they arrive.
Technorati tag: EcoHouse
posted by Ian at 5:50 PM
Gordon Brown has announced a £100billion renewable energy plan. The Daily Mail and its readers have reacted as you'd expect, ignoring the boost to the economy from all the jobs created and the opportunities through grants to go energy independent.
So, those of you who can, I'd recommend stealing a jump on the whingers and using their tax money to go off grid. When I researched grants for solar panels last month I found that the existing scheme had been phased out, which was annoying. I'm now willing to give Brown the benefit of the doubt and hope this was because they were gearing up to a new and improved scheme. It isn't easy. I'm not as obnoxiously and knee-jerkingly anti Brown/New Labour as the Mail's readers, but past performance does mark the Government as untrustworthy.
The schemes for householders will be announced later this Summer. I'll be looking out for them and will try to do some number crunching on them when they arrive.
Technorati tag: EcoHouse
Labels: Carbon Dioxide, carbon footprint, carbon neutral, climate change, energy saving, Gordon Brown, Infrastructure, renewable energy, Solar Power, Wind Power
posted by Ian at 5:50 PM
Guerrilla Gardening in Tokyo
Even one of the most densely populated cities in the world still has some space for an enterprising guerrilla to plant tomatoes.
via BoingBoing
Technorati tag: EcoHouse
posted by Ian at 4:21 PM
Even one of the most densely populated cities in the world still has some space for an enterprising guerrilla to plant tomatoes.
via BoingBoing
Technorati tag: EcoHouse
Labels: guerrilla gardening
posted by Ian at 4:21 PM
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Algae powered adventures in Chicago
In a piece of brilliant education a Chicago science teacher ran a project with his students to see if they could create enough biodiesel from algae to run a VW camper on a 20 mile round trip from their school to the Sears tower and back again. The algae "farm" was set up in a corner of the classroom, using fluorescent lamps to double for sunlight, and the resulting liquid separated in a centrifuge at a proper lab. A writer for Jalopnik was along for the ride as the battered old vehicle puttered its way through the windy city's heavy Friday traffic.
Obviously the small scale set up the students used was probably carbon negative overal, with its reliance on pumps and artificial light, but large scale algae farms could benefit from natural light and wind or solar PV to power any motors.
Technorati tag: Biodiesel
posted by Ian at 11:09 AM
In a piece of brilliant education a Chicago science teacher ran a project with his students to see if they could create enough biodiesel from algae to run a VW camper on a 20 mile round trip from their school to the Sears tower and back again. The algae "farm" was set up in a corner of the classroom, using fluorescent lamps to double for sunlight, and the resulting liquid separated in a centrifuge at a proper lab. A writer for Jalopnik was along for the ride as the battered old vehicle puttered its way through the windy city's heavy Friday traffic.
Obviously the small scale set up the students used was probably carbon negative overal, with its reliance on pumps and artificial light, but large scale algae farms could benefit from natural light and wind or solar PV to power any motors.
Technorati tag: Biodiesel
Labels: algae diesel, Biodiesel, transport
posted by Ian at 11:09 AM
