Jonathan Butler: Green

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 19:17:20 GMT

New York Times on Energy Independence. Thomas Friedman compares how Scandinavia deals with energy. "Unlike America, Denmark, which was so badly hammered by the 1973 Arab oil embargo that it banned all Sunday driving for a while, responded to that crisis in such a sustained, focused and systematic way that today it is energy independent. (And it didnâo[dot accent]t happen by Danish politicians making their people stupid by telling them the solution was simply more offshore drilling.)" ::Thomas Friedman in New York Times The Editorial is even better." A toxic combination of $4 gasoline, voter anxiety and presidentia...

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Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:27:52 GMT

Green College Rankings Now Available From The Princeton Review. Image: Getty Images Just in time for the next round of college applications, the Princeton Review announced its latest round of college ranking guides, but this year the guides will include a green ranking of universities, among the other rankings like best program for a particular degree category, as well as colleges with the best campus social life. 534 schools were included in this ranking, with most progressive campuses earning Honor Roll status....

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Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:38:01 GMT

New Algae Biofuel from Sapphire Energy "Chemically Identical to Gasoline". photo: Sapphire Energy âo[breve]Green Crudeâo[dot accent] Milestone In what it calls its most significant milestone yet, Sapphire Energy , claims it has succeeded in refining a high-octane gasoline from algae that is chemically identical to crude oil. According to Sapphire Energy, âo[ogonek]The resulting gasoline is completely compatible with current infrastructure, meaning absolutely no change to consumerâo[dot accent]s cars.âo� This is of course in addition to the benefit that their Green Crude is a carbon neutral fuel. ...

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Sat, 28 Jun 2008 19:43:49 GMT

Abu Dhabiâo[dot accent]s solar venture.

Abu Dhabi is not content to just sell you the oil that fuels your SUV; now its going to sell you sunshine to keep your lights on and power your electric car when the internal combustion engine goes the way of the buggy whip. Masdar, the oil-rich emirate[base ']Äôs $15 billion renewable energy venture, and Spanish technology company Sener on Wednesday announced a joint venture called Torresol Energy to build large-scale solar power plants in Australia, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and the United States.

Torresol initially will invest $1.2 billion in three solar power plants to be built in Spain but the company is targeting the global [base ']Äúsunbelt[base ']Äù for future expansion. Masdar will take a 60 percent ownership stake in Torresol with Sener holding a 40 percent stake. A Torresol spokesman declined to reveal the dollar amount of the investment. A prime market for Torresol will be the U.S. desert Southwest, where companies like Ausra, BrightSource Energy, Solel and Abengoa Solar are competing for contracts with utilities PG&E (PCG), Arizona Public Service (PNW) and Southern California Edison (EIX). Torresol potentially could shake up that market, given its very deep pockets and ability to independently finance billion-dollar solar power plants.

The venture is just the latest move by Abu Dhabi to control what Masdar CEO Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber described to Green Wombat recently as [base ']Äúthe whole value chain[base ']Äù of renewable energy, from research and development to manufacturing silicon for solar cells to the large-scale deployment of green technology.

The irony is too rich to leave unsaid: A leading oil producer invests billions in carbon-free energy while a leading consumer of fossil fuels - the United States - continues to subsidize Big Oil while while offering only tepid support for green technology. It is inevitable that climate change will foster the rise of renewable energy - the only question is which countries and companies will profit from the new energy economics. It is entirely possible that the U.S. will trade energy dependence of one kind - on Middle East oil - for another - on Middle East and European solar technology - in the era of global warming. It[base ']Äôs no coincidence that most of the solar energy companies with contracts to build utility-scale power plants in California and the Southwest have overseas roots - Ausra hails from Australia, BrightSource was founded by American-Israeli pioneer Arnold Goldman, Solel is based in Israel and Abengoa is headquartered in Spain.

Torresol plans to build solar power plants using a technology it calls a Central Tower Receiver system. It[base ']Äôs similar to technology used by competitors like BrightSource in that fields of mirrors called heliostats focus the sun[base ']Äôs rays on tower that contains a receiver. In this case the receiver is filled with salt which when heated vaporizes water to create steam that drives an electricity-generating turbine. The company says it intends to have 500 megawatts of solar electricity online by 2012.

[Green Wombat]

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 19:29:54 GMT

New Solar Power Projects on U.S. Public Lands Placed on Hold. photo by Petor Smit After the absurd news of the past week revealing in pathetic detail just how far the current U.S. administration has its head in the sand when it comes to pressing environment problems, for some this next bit may just add fuel to the fire. Moratorium on Solar in Six Western States We learn from The New York Times, that citing the need to review envir...

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Sat, 28 Jun 2008 19:18:30 GMT

This summer may see first ice-free North Pole (AP).

AP - There's a 50-50 chance that the North Pole will be ice-free this summer, which would be a first in recorded history, a leading ice scientist says.

[Yahoo! News: Science News]

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 01:49:36 GMT

1 Gallon of Gas, 100 Miles [~] $10 Million: The Race to Build the Supergreen Car. There's a $10 million prize waiting for the team that builds a super-green, ultra-efficient vehicle. Start your engines, it's the race to build the 100-mpg car.

[Wired Top Stories]

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:39:56 GMT

Undulating Living Facade at Seoul Shop.
Herbaceous perennials grow from both the facade and interior walls at fashion retailer Ann Demeulemeester's Korea flagship in Seoul. Designed by Korean-based architecture firm Mass Studies (which doesn't seem to have a working Web site), the four-level structure is a grassy oasis of nature in an otherwise gray and dense city. The perennials (clover, says one source) are planted into something Mass Studies bills a "geo-textile." According to

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Sun, 16 Dec 2007 20:39:54 GMT

The Visual Display of Vampire Information. We write often about vampire power losses, but Good Magazine displays it graphically and effectively. ::Good Magazine via ::Core 77...

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Fri, 14 Dec 2007 21:44:51 GMT

Red Worm Implementation By Allison Rogers. Vermicomposting is an optimal green technique. Recently, Allison Rogers implemented a red worm vermicomposting system on her balcony. Not one to be easily daunted, Allison got close up to the worms (see photos below). These worms will quickly turn her kitchen scraps into high-quality compost (see this article for more details of the intriguing processes involved). This effective technique makes composting available to apartment dwellers...

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Fri, 14 Dec 2007 21:37:31 GMT

Arctic: Ice-Free by 2013?. The passage of time has not been kind to the Arctic's fortunes: Where scientists once predicted the Arctic would be ice-free by the end of the century, they revised their estimates in recent months to 2030 and now - stunningly - to 2013. Presenting the findings of his modeling studies at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, Wieslaw Maslowski, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School, explained that earlier projections had low-balled the real values by not accounting for some of the processes driving the ice loss. Even worse, he conceded that his own estimates may be on the optimistic side, explaining that the models he had run - usin...

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Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:54:10 GMT

From what the article says, maybe we would be a lot better off if there was a half mile of water covering Washington.... :) Greenland Ice Melting at Record Rate. Image courtesy of kaet44 Speaking at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, Konrad Steffen of the University of Colorado, Boulder, painted a grim picture of Greenland's current state, describing the amount of ice it lost over the past year as "the equivalent of two times all the ice in the Alps or a layer of water more than one-half-mile deep covering Washington, D.C." The volume of water unleashed by the melting ice raised global sea levels by close to 2 one-hundredths of an inch; were all of...

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Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:06:45 GMT

UN Warms Climate Talks Could Collapse. (AP) -- Al Gore said Thursday the United States is "principally responsible" for blocking progress at the U.N. climate conference, and European nations threatened to boycott U.S.-led climate talks next month unless Washington compromises on emissions reductions. [PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news]

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 22:47:15 GMT

Gas quickly produced from old wells (AP). AP - A vast new energy supply in hard-to-tap older oil fields may be generated simply by feeding fertilizer to some deep-dwelling, gas-making microbes, new research suggests. [Yahoo! News: Science News]

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 22:38:05 GMT

You don't see George Bush doing ANYTHING but helping the oil and utility companies in this country. Pathetic. We have to do it for ourselves if we want to get it done. Jon UK Plans 25 Gigawatts Of Offshore Wind.

¬[sgl dagger]

The UK plans to build offshore wind farms that generate a total of 25 gigawatts. This is in addition to an existing 8 gigawatts of planned construction. This vast increase in wind power, in addition to the wave and tidal projects being tested in the Orkney islands, could power all of the UK[base ']Äôs homes by 2020.

The scheme could see turbines so large that they would reach 850ft into the sky. Each would be capable of powering up to 8,000 homes.

Britain[base ']Äôs current range of coal, gas, nuclear and other power stations are capable of generating 75 gigawatts (GW) of electricity, but less than 0.5GW comes from wind.

Business Secretary John Hutton will announce at an energy conference in Berlin tomorrow that he wants to see this target raised to 33GW-worth of wind turbines installed in the seas around Britain by 2020. If energy consumption remains stable this would mean wind power could supply the electricity needs of every home in Britain.

There would still be a need to keep fossil-fuelled power stations in reserve because windless days could leave Britain with power shortages.

Via: Peak Energy and Times Online

[MetaEfficient]

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:04:10 GMT

GOP fights energy bill (AP). AP - Despite a threatened veto, Senate Democrats decided Tuesday to push ahead with billions of dollars in oil industry taxes as part of an energy bill, but abandoned a requirement for utilities to use wind and other renewable energy to produce electricity. [Yahoo! News: Science News]

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 23:31:36 GMT

Ominous Arctic melt worries experts (AP).

AP - An already relentless melting of the Arctic greatly accelerated this summer, a warning sign that some scientists worry could mean global warming has passed an ominous tipping point./> [Yahoo! News: Science News]

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:17:40 GMT

WWF says warming puts Amazon at risk (AP).

AP - The impact of climate change plus deforestation could wipe out or severely damage nearly 60 percent of the Amazon forest by 2030 [~] making it impossible to keep global temperatures from reaching catastrophic levels, an environmental group said Thursday.

[Yahoo! News: Science News]

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:24:21 GMT

The Green Room: iTunes' Section for Environmental Podcasts. Like green? Like podcasts? Like 'em both, for free? Of course you do. If you can't get enough green listening from TreeHugger Radio and the like, and want to get more green news and views zapped directly to your computer, this is for you. The good folks at iTunes have aggregated some of the best environment-related podcasts in one handy spot, for you to subscribe to (for free!) and consume at your leisure. Included are our pals from Grist, and Lazy Environmentalist

[TreeHugger]

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 14:20:12 GMT

I bet if there were a vote in this country, the results would be similar. Jon Rudd makes global warming a priority (AP).

AP - Newly elected leader Kevin Rudd moved quickly Sunday to bring Australia into international talks on fighting global warming, and to head off potentially thorny relations with the United States and key Asian neighbors.

[Yahoo! News: Science News]

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:07:47 GMT

U.N.: Greenhouse gases hit high in 2006 (AP).

AP - Two of the most important Greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere reached a record high in 2006, and measurements show that one [~] carbon dioxide [~] is playing an increasingly important role in global warming, the U.N. weather agency said Friday.

[Yahoo! News: Science News]

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 19:42:04 GMT

1973: Sorry, Out of Gas. In 1979, Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the roof of the White House to heat water and save energy; a few years later Ronald Reagan removed them, insisting that there was energy enough for all. Reagan then presided over the start of what architecture critic Chris Hume calls "America's collective descent into amnesia." We have forgotten how bad it was when OPEC turned off the taps in October, 1973. Hume reminds us that oil shot from $ 2.59 a barrel to a shocking $11.65. "The result was pandemonium: In Europe, driving was banned on Sundays; in North America, long lineups at filling stations degenerated into free-for-alls. Leaders went on television...

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Fri, 23 Nov 2007 16:36:15 GMT

Growers bid to revive American chestnut (AP).

AP - Growing up in the 1920s, Bill Lord remembers feasting on the sweet, rich nuts of American chestnut trees [~] the majestic species that a fungus would soon all but wipe out.

[Yahoo! News: Science News]

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 22:22:06 GMT

"Think Outside the Bottle" Becomes a Rallying Cry. In case you've got a thirst for bottled water, think again... Because it's far more energy efficient to use a refillable bottle and the liquid right out of your tap than having it shipped vast distances in a plastic bottle that winds up needing to be recycled in the end. And while I'm willing to bet there's plenty of Treehuggers who knew that already, the folks at "Think Outside the Bottle" are hoping to start a major trend in the right direction, convincing young and old alike to take a pledge that they'll switch from the ubiquitous and trashy plastic bottle to one that

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Wed, 21 Nov 2007 19:05:22 GMT

Air Conditioning With Ice Energy - Climate Saving Can Be Cool. Ice Energy has come a long way since our 2005 post describing a possible 30% energy saving benefit, and Lloyd's update called Ice Bear: Thermal Storage for Cheaper AC. Now we're allowed to look inside (pictured), and see there's been some progress on the marketing side as well. Just recently Ice Energy announced a partnership with Pacific Gas & Electric (arguably the country's 'greenest utility') as part of the utility's $10 Million Shift & Save program and expect to be picked up by a multitude of others...

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