As fall weather descends on the northern hemisphere, over 40 solar-powered vehicles have just kicked off a 2-week race through South Africa.

The contest, called the South African Solar Challenge, tests the engineering, creativity, and endurance of sun ray-cers over demanding terrain. The main promoter of the race is the Advanced Energy Foundation, whose mission is to promote innovation in transportation and energy management technologies.

Over the full course, contestants will complete a 4,175 km loop from Johannesburg to Cape Town, then back along the southern coast, all the while grappling with hills, wind, and navigation.

2008 is a the first year of the challenge, which is planned to be run every two years. About 20 teams in the race are local with a roughly equal number being international teams. Beyond pure solar cars, other vehicle categories cover electrics, hybrids, and biofuel cars.

Six winning projects have been chosen in the 2008 Green Building Competition for New York City. The competition was sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the NYC Mayor's Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability.

The Apple's green building epicenter is clearly Manhattan, which took 5 of the awards. The final winner was in the Bronx. Also held in 2004 and 2006, the contest was created to showcase green design, encourage innovation and identify roadblocks to more sustainable building practices.

The two grand prize winners are the Battery Park City Conservancy’s maintenance facility and a super-luxe waterfront condo building called The Visionaire (also one of the rejected titles for CBS' The Mentalist). Descriptions of the two projects follow. You can read about the other winners in the EPA press release (pdf).

Battery Park City Conservancy’s maintenance facility
Dattner Architects

Between 2nd and 3rd Place, Battery Place and Little West Street in Battery Park City

This project embodies the mission of the Conservancy: maintaining open spaces within Battery Park City and providing a venue for cultural and educational programs. The facility, providing for both office space and park maintenance service uses, features onsite garbage compaction as a part of the integrated pest management strategy and composting. The maintenance facility optimizes spaces for myriad uses, such as: a large staging area in the central atrium; a double-glazed walkway between floors that acts as thick insulator to capture and release solar gain; a vehicle storage and repair area that includes charging capabilities for the electric fleet; specialized storage for organic pesticide and fertilizer; staff lockers and showers; supply and prep rooms for art; and, community space for use by local community groups. Organic waste from a local grocery store and from the horticulture operations will be composted; the compost tea and compost will be used in landscaping the 36 acres of open space. The Conservancy will
use recycled water extensively; treated black water will be used to wash vehicles and gray water to flush toilets. Gray water will supply 96,710 gallons to the Conservancy per year and overall water efficiency measures are expected to reduce water use by 47 percent.

The Visionaire
Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects

Between 2nd and 3rd Place, Battery Place and Little West Street in Battery Park City For construction of this majestic building, half of the building material costs went to purchase locally-harvested materials, and 20 percent of building materials were manufactured within 500 miles of New York City. The terra cotta screens, low-emissivity reflective insulated glass, and thermally-broken aluminum framing create a high performance envelop with a R-value of 20. On-site geo-thermal heat pumps, 4,000 square feet of photovoltaic fuel cells, and a microturbine provide part of the building’s energy needs. Occupant health and satisfaction greatly influenced the design – in addition to natural and low-emitting materials, there will be 100 percent fresh air ventilation and 40 to 45 percent day-lighting for habitable rooms. Sustainable roof technologies – including plantings, and permeable and high albedo paved surfaces – cover 70 percent of the roof surface, thereby reducing stormwater runoff and heat island effect while providing a recreation area for residents. To assure maximum benefits from the city’s only LEED Platinum residential apartment building, a comprehensive guide to the systems, features, and emergency procedures will be provided to all residents.

This afternoon, the House with its large majority of Democrats easily passed H.R. 7060, the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Tax Act of 2008, that had passed the Senate last week as The Renewable Energy and Extension Act of 2008.

Yippee ! right? Sadly, no.

No, now it goes back to the Senate again with a small change. Because the House fully funded it under return to Pay-as-you-go rules that Pelosi demanded the House adhere to at the beginning of the Democrats taking the House majority in 2007.

It is one thing to be so high minded in the House, where support for clean energy rules. But the Senate has enough Republicans to prevent passage. There are never enough votes to get clean energy past the 60 vote Republican filibuster otherwise with an almost evenly split 51/49 Senate.

And as each part must be agreed to, this fiscal decency on Pelosi's part could sink the bill back in the Senate. To say nothing of a Bush veto. He has repeatedly said he would veto any energy bill funded by taxes on oil profits.

Without the veto-proof vote of last weeks Senate version 93-2, Bush would have veto power again over the bill. The Senate version had cleverly bypassed the filibuster by wrapping the bill together with disaster relief for disaster victims of Hurricane Ike, who are predominantly the constituents of Republican Senators in the South, and the AMT fix, making it almost impossible to fail passage.

But the House separated these out into a separate bills, a fatal move. It also stripped the bill of concessions on high carbon energy provisions, again, needed to secure passage in the Senate, and that could have been easily overturned in later legislation on carbon emissions under a new administration.

“We are in peril if the House does not take up and pass this legislation (as is),” Cantwell (D) said: "that Senate bill was massaged as much as it can be.”

Quoting Nancy Pelosi's office press release this afternoon, these differences included:
"This bill offers the Senate a chance to support a two year extension of tax relief to create jobs and strengthen the American economy, paid for by offsets Senators have already supported in other legislation.

Unlike the Senate’s proposal, it is does not add to the national debt -- using provisions that passed the Senate on Tuesday by a vote of 93 to 2 and another already passed by the Senate and signed into law by the President to fully offset the cost of extending this critical tax relief.

The offsets close loopholes allowing corporations and executives to avoid U.S. taxes by shipping jobs and investment overseas, curtail unnecessary tax subsidies for big, multinational oil and gas companies, and provide for broker reporting of customer’s basis in securities.

It is time for Senate Republicans to join us in extending important energy, business and individual tax incentives in a fiscally responsible way that does not require America to borrow additional tens of billions of dollars from foreign countries. Now more than ever, it is critical that we do not continue to add unnecessarily to the national debt, which has surged to nearly $10 trillion due to the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bush Administration and Congressional Republicans.

Tax Incentives for Renewable Energy to Spur Green Jobs and American Energy Independence ($15 billion; similar to Senate)

• Eight-year extension of the investment tax credit (ITC) for solar energy.
• Multi-year extension of the production tax credit (PTC) for energy derived from biomass, geothermal, hydropower, waves and tides, landfill gas and solid waste (through September 30, 2011).
• One-year extension of the PTC for energy derived from wind.
• Incentives for carbon capture and sequestration demonstration projects.
• Incentives for the production of homegrown renewable fuels, such as biodiesel and renewable diesel, and for the installation of E-85 pumps for consumers to fill up flex-fuel vehicles.
• Tax credits of $3,000 or more toward the purchase of fuel-efficient, plug-in hybrid vehicles.
• Incentives for energy conservation in commercial buildings, residential structures, and energy efficient appliances."

The renewable energy provisions themselves are unchanged. (The EV credits still do go up to $5,000.) So now the ball is back in the Senate court.

Possibly Pelosi and Reid are playing a clever game of chicken that they know they can win. After all, back when this bill was the Baucus amendment in December, and fully funded, just like Pelosi's version today, and not tied to disaster relief or the AMT, it did get 59 votes - only 1 vote short -- McCain did not vote, securing failure for the Energy Bill of 2007.

Related stories:
On Ninth Attempt, Democrats Pass Clean Energy Provisions
McCain's 50 Votes Against Clean Energy
How Obama Has Voted On Clean Energy


Graph from opensecrets.org

If you're like me, and probably half the American work force, most of your work happens on a computer. Imagine, if instead of driving 20 miles to work you did the same job but telecommuted from a fully equipped communal office set up a mere 15 minute walk from your home?

Currently, we often commute great distances just to wind up parked in front of a computer somewhere. We have computers at home, but telecommuting doesn't work for everyone. Maybe your home computer won't run the fancy math necessary to engineer those molecular chemical bonds you build, or maybe your boss just isn't comfortable with the idea of you working in your jammies.

Still, we're doing a ridiculous amount of driving, just to do something that can be done just as efficiently much closer to home. The solution? How about a network of well-equipped work spaces only a 15-minute walk from home? What would it take? Well:

* Office space (that someone cleans at night)
* Computers (good ones with high speed internet etc)
* Virtual meeting video conferencing (like TV pundits use)
* Power supplied using clean energy (to lower your carbon footprint even more)
* High-end catering services (in case you are too pooped to walk home for lunch)
* Proximity to public transportation, and a freeway (for now)
* Quiet private work spaces (if you really need to focus)
* Open work spaces (illustrated above)
* Public area for companionship (to replace the office cooler)
* On-site daycare (so you don't have to drive anywhere else before work)

Give it snappy name; something like the Smart Work Center, and then build more of them only 15 minutes apart. Maybe every new apartment building should have its own Smart Work Center.

Say you're an escrow writer. Instead of driving 20 miles to an office full of escrow people, you'd walk your 15 minutes and share space with, say, a sitcom script writer, three stockbrokers and four telemarketers. (Uh-oh... there's the reason for those private cubicles.) Throw in a couple of drug rehab grant writers, a shoe designer and a repo man, and wouldn't that be an interesting place to work?

Since you all live in the same neighborhood, this would cut down on the play-date driving for your kiddies, too, because the friends they make at daycare would live nearby. We'd be close enough to walk home for lunch. And if we are on a 10,000-step weight-loss program, why, there's the lion's share of all the walking already. Another walk around the supermarket at night to get dinner, and you're at 10,000.

Meanwhile, you'd stay abreast of things at work by sharing virtual space with your fellow escrow writers. Heck, we're half way to living in the virtual world as it is. I know more environmental activists online than I do my neighbors two blocks away. 

This system would be better for the jammies media too. My commute is only 17 stairs down to my computer. While that's an admirable carbon-footprint on my part, that leaves almost 9, 800 steps in my 10,000 steps for my day. I have never seen my editor or my boss, or the writers I share this page with. If I could check in with everyone else at the video story meeting, wouldn't that be great? 

Well, the day may be getting closer when I can.

 Cisco has taken the first step in creating the first of these Smart Work Centers, incorporating every amenity on my wish-list at a test site in Almere, Holland, near Amsterdam. From there, it's on to San Francisco, Seoul, Madrid, Lisbon, Hamburg and Birmingham, England. But Almere is the perfect site to test out the Smart Work Center, because the town expects to double its number of inhabitants by 2030. It will need 60,000 new houses and 100,000 new jobs, making it a good candidate for a network of work centers.

It also has a mayor who gets it.  

"We want to invest in modern employer practice and make lifestyle changes in order to preserve the environment," says Annemarie Jorritsma, Almere's mayor. "We need new knowledge to help us make our lifestyles and production processes as energy-neutral and CO2-neutral as possible.

"Almere is an innovative city. We have a new citywide fiber-optic network, (and) an innovative broadband solution for high-quality visual communication that enables companies to maintain visual contact with their head offices elsewhere – both within and outside the Netherlands. This is the epitome of globalization."

As a sponsoring member of the Clinton Global Initiative, Cisco has found a commitment thats perfect for them.

The premise of CGI membership rests upon finding a sustainable solution to climate change that each member can implement, and being committed to carrying it out. Cisco and Almere's mayor have created the model for this far more sustainable way to organize our commute to work.

Photo Office Nomads by Christie Kinskey

The Environmental Defense Fund is offering $10,000 to anyone who can create a video or visual explanation of carbon caps. The explanation must make it clear to the American public exactly what a carbon cap is, and what its benefits are. The prize is being offered through the EDF's lobbying arm, the Environmental Defense Action Fund.

There's little question that the concept of carbon caps isn't well understood by most people. The interesting part of the EDF's approach is a request for contestants to avoid getting into a discussion of global warming or partisan politics — the two ways in the carbon cap discussion is usually framed.

While it isn't clear how the EDF plans to use the winning submission, the competition does seem like a good idea in general. If the EDF can find a simple way of explaining carbon caps to the public, it may have more success lobbying for relevant legislation. Furthermore, the contest specifically requires a new media solution: a YouTube video, a Flickr image or an otherwise online submission. That improves the chances of the EDF finding a winner being able to connect with a relevant, interested audience.

Submissions are due by Nov. 21, through the EDF website. The winner will be announced in December.

Image — EDF

Fortune magazine has nailed down the new "hottest" green-collar job: wildlife biologist. The demand for wildlife biologists has skyrocketed lately, due entirely to the rapidly growing solar power industry. As companies seek to build large solar power generators in the Southwest, they run into a number of requirements: Local fauna and flora must be cataloged, habitat-protection plans must be created, and endangered-species laws must be observed.

Ausra is currently building a solar power plant for PG&E in central California. To complete the wildlife survey and other associated tasks, Ausra needs a team of about 40 people to scour every inch of the land chosen for PG&E's plant. Other projects require up to 75 biologists to complete, but there simply aren't enough wildlife biologists to go around. Hal La Flash, a renewable-energy executive with PG&E, told Fortune that he worries that universities aren't meeting the demand for green workers, including wildlife biologists. "It could really slow down some of these big solar projects," he said.

Another California solar project is a case in point. Stirling Energy Systems is building a solar installation in the Southern California desert. It took two years of wildlife surveys to get permission from regulators to proceed, and work on the site has routinely been halted because of a lack of wildlife biologists able to handle surveys.

Photo — kqedquest

Where in the world is Stephen Johnson? The EPA administrator was nowhere to be found this week as official Senate investigations began into some, shall we say, interesting decisions he made during his tenure in office. 

While Johnson’s disappearing act is nothing new, it seems that no one at the EPA -- other than what Washington Post columnist Al Kamen described as “low-level ... sacrificial lambs” -- was willing to appear at the hearing.  Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock was also busy, attending a non-partisan conference that included a paddlewheel boat ride in Branson, Missouri.

Since the EPA represents the first line of defense against environmental threats to the nation, this lack of accountability should be among the first things addressed by the new president, regardless of the winner. From sewage sludge fertilizer to the inability to identify carbon emissions and other heat-trapping gasses as dangerous pollutants, the consistent inaction of the EPA during this administration has angered states and forced the Supreme Court to force its hand on numerous occasions.

Unfortunately, with only weeks left in their tenure, the leaders of the agency will likely not appear at any hearings to determine how derelict in their duty to protect their environment they have been.

Attempting to shore up a battered image and looking to reduce one of the major sources of pollution it creates, Wal-Mart said Friday that it would be cutting back on its use of plastic bags, aiming for a full 33 percent reduction by 2013.

Though plastic bags are recyclable, collection centers can be hard to find. The thin and easily-torn plastic material seldom has much reuse value, and generally ends up in landfills, where it breaks down into smaller pieces, frequently finding its way into the ocean.  Wal-Mart’s cuts could lead to a reduction of some 135 million pounds of plastic overall.

While some cities, most notably San Francisco, have banned non-biodegradable plastic bags entirely, a phase-out or reduction plan from the corporate side is likely to be more effective and easier to enforce. 

Currently, workers at many major retailers are trained to automatically bag goods without first asking the customer if they have a bag with them, or would simply prefer to carry the products by hand.  The simple step of creating the choice in the customers mind could save millions of bags.

On Thursday, Senator John McCain participated in an event sponsored by the Clinton Global Initiative in New York. He used the event to present himself as someone who is allied with Democrats like Gore and Clinton and other movers and shakers on clean energy.

"McCain declared his support for efforts to combat global warming," according to the Washington Post, "dropping his stump speech demands to 'drill here, drill now' in favor of more 'green' rhetoric that would appeal to the crowd at the conference."

McCain said, as quoted by the Post, said "To make the great turn away from carbon-emitting fuels, we will need all the inventive genius of which America is capable," he said. "We will need as well an economy strong enough to support our nation's great shift toward clean energy."  

The Boston Globe reported: "While some in his own party, including running mate Sarah Palin, have expressed doubts about how much human activity is fueling climate change, McCain expressed no such doubts."

"We now know that fossil fuel emissions, by retaining heat within the atmosphere, threaten disastrous changes in climate," said McCain. "Over time, we must shift our entire energy economy toward a sustainable mix of new and cleaner power sources."

The press has largely failed to compare the Presidential candidate's words to his deeds as a veteran Senator.

McCain was one of the first Republican senators to press for action on climate change, but he strongly supports nuclear power as the most effective "clean" energy source. His campaign and public appearances continue to contradict his voting record.

As previously reported, a look at McCain's Senate energy votes reveals that he aligns almost vote for vote with those of Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, the member of Congress who has most strongly opposed implementing clean energy. McCain has had 50 opportunities to support the very clean energy agenda he describes, and he has taken all 50 legislative opportunities to vote against it. McCain has voted, like the majority of Republicans, against this clean energy vision. 

Participants at the Clinton Global Initiative are asked to take concrete steps to tackle specific global problems before participating in the events. What commitment has McCain made to warrant his use of the Clinton Global Initiative as a backdrop for greenwashing his true record on global warming?

The next American president will be an important player in  determining whether this nation can transition to a new carbon-constrained world, or will be left behind in a fossil-based economy.

Perhaps McCain's Clinton Global Initiative commitment should be to let the world know his real energy position.

Dell has announced plans to switch all of the laptop displays the company produces to LEDs, in order to provide the greenest computer technology possible. Starting Dec. 15, the Dell Latitude family of laptops will be the first switched over to the greener light source as a standard feature. Dell will make the transition one line at a time, and expects that 80 percent of its laptops will use LEDs by the end of 2009. The conversion should be entirely complete by the end of 2010.

In tests, Dell has demonstrated that its 15-inch LED display consumes an average of 43 percent less power at maximum brightness. The company estimates that customers with LED displays can save a combined $20 million and 220 million kilowatt-hours by the end of 2011.

"Our customers have made it clear that they want the greenest technology possible," Jeff Clarke, the senior vice president of Dell Product Group, said during the company’s mobility summit in Monte Carlo. "As an industry, we can shape the future of green innovation and significantly reduce the carbon footprint associated with mobile computing. Dell is committed to leading the transition to energy-efficient LED technology."

Dell says it is committed to becoming the greenest technology company on the planet. In August, Dell was able to announce that it had met its goals for carbon-neutrality five months ahead of schedule.

Image — Dell

Rhode Island will turn to wind power to supply some of its energy needs, using a series of offshore turbines being developed by Deepwater Wind, the governor said Thursday.

Gov. Donald Carcieri said the location of the project has not been determined, and the project as a whole is still contingent on approvals from both the state and federal governments.

According to the governor's office, Deepwater Wind has agreed to invest $1.5 billion in a regional manufacturing facility in Quonset, Rhode Island. This facility will manufacture support structures for offshore turbines that will be used in all of Deepwater Wind's northeastern projects. The new facility will create as many as 800 jobs in the area.

"This announcement marks a major step to bring wind power to Rhode Island and to reach our goal of at least 15 percent of all electricity in the state be renewable energy," Carcieri said in a statement. "Of the many forms of renewable energy alternatives available, wind is the proven leader. Wind power is clean, green power that is not subject to variations and increases in fuel price. Rhode Island’s is uniquely positioned to lead the nation with the development of this country’s first offshore wind farm."

Deepwater Wind was selected from among seven developers who submitted proposals for the offshore project in April.

Photo — Zemistor

Bharat Petroleum is backing a venture expected to produce one million metric tons of biodiesel from jatropha by 2015.

The new venture, Bharat Renewable Energy, will spend $480 million just on growing the jatropha necessary for the project. The company will grow more than a million acres of the crop on what is now wasteland in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. A government program, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, will fund part of the project. Bharat Petroleum is a state-run refinery.

In an effort to get a head start on the project, Bharat Petroleum has already begun planting jatropha on unused land on the company's properties. These plants will bear fruit that can be harvested in approximately three years. Bharat is also looking for sites in a number of Indian states on which to plant more jatropha.

Bharat Renewable Energy is also backed by Nandan Biomatrix, a jatropha cultivator, and Shpooji Pallonji, a construction firm. The venture was formed this summer with the intention of creating biofuels from a variety of crops, including both jatropha and pongamia pinnata, an Indian birch. Bharat Petroleum is exploring other renewable energy sources as well, including a pilot solar farm in Punjab. Another government-owned refiner, Hindustan Petroleum, is working to develop its own jatropha project. Hindustan plans to plant over 15,000 hectares of jatropha.

The Indian government has mandated a 20 percent blend of biofuel in petroleum by 2017. There is little doubt that Bharat will be able to market its biofuel, assuming that there are minimal issues in growing and processing jatropha.

The mandate requires that biofuels used to meet the new policy cannot come from food crops — an controversial issue dogging biodiesel in other countries. Jatropha actually more than meets the mandate's requirement. Not only is the plant not a food crop, it also can be grown on barren land and therefore does not compete with food crops for arable land. However, there are still issues with domesticating jatropha, and the plant is known for its inconsistent level of production.

Currently, about two-thirds of the world's jatropha is grown in India. Jatropha's yield has been estimated to be 10 times that of corn, but that level of production has yet to be demonstrated on a commercial scale. While jatropha has incredible support as a biofuel, it still remains to be seen whether companies will be able to capitalize on the crop.

Photo by Flickr user Dinesh Valke

There are many climate commentators who find the very concept of the modern city unsustainable. But if mayor Michael Bloomberg, ConEdison and the Long Island Power Authority have anything to say about it, New York City—one of the world’s largest— may be well on its way to disproving that assertion. 

We’re not just talking about Christmas trees, here: a 300-megawatt wind farm is now in the works, planned for 10 miles southeast of the city.  Similar projects have failed, but with most of New York’s population on the pro-renewable side of the culture war, and with similar large farms popping up everywhere from Texas to Massachusetts, the $1.5-billion-dollar price tag tentatively attached to the project may have less dissuasive power.

I hope that this project will succeed, setting a precedent for large renewable installations closer to urban centers where demand for power is the highest.  Transporting power to urban areas from renewable installations, which tend to be in rural areas where land is cheap, is becoming an increasingly contentious issue, both technologically and in terms of conservation. 

Los Angeles is working to attract new businesses to build the city’s green economy. The Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) has designated part of downtown as a new center for green industry. The CRA is converting 1 million square feet of previously industrial area into offices and buildings for research, development and manufacturing that is focused on environmental factors and sustainability.

An "infill" project takes abandoned or moderately used land in prime downtown areas for different kinds of developments. By building on previously developed land, the city saves natural resources and can create a greener area without expanding into habitats at the edge of the city.

The project, the Los Angeles Clean Technology Manufacturing Center, has been  designed to provide office space for the “innovators that will create the jobs of a new economy for the 21st century,” according to L.A. mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The center will house clean-technology companies and those trying to make business more sustainable.

The city will also offer economic incentives for companies interested in locating their businesses in the center. This effort is one of several aimed at creating a cleaner Los Angeles and “a model for sustainable industrial development in North America.”

The burgeoning wave-power power industry holds a lot of promise. Off the coast of Portugal, one of the major hydrokinetic devices is receiving its first serious field test.  Dubbed “Pelamis,” after an ancient word for sea monster, the serpentine device — an attenuator wave energy converter, to be precise — is cranking out 750 kilowatts into the local power grid.

Over three miles out into the Atlantic, Pelamis has had to overcome a few obstacles not seen in the lab. Deeper water and rougher surf have caused some problems, but research teams have already moved to correct them by adjusting the buoyancy of their devices and strengthening underwater connections.

Wave power, or hydrokinetic energy, holds tremendous potential as a clean energy source, improving reliability of supply over solar and wind power. It provides a less visually obtrusive means of offshore power generation than wind farms, and wave conditions near many heavily populated areas worldwide are highly conducive to hydrokinetic installations. 

The Portuguese project has placed orders for 24 more machines. It will soon be the most productive such installation in the world and an important precedent for other nations to follow.

The GSM Association announced a new initiative to help mobile operators go green. Called the Green Power for Mobile Initiative, this project will help the industry use renewable energy sources to power mobile base stations. The GSMA represents more than 750 GSM mobile operators in 218 countries.

By 2012, the GSMA's goal is to power 118,000 new and existing mobile base stations with solar, wind, biofuels and other renewable energy sources. These base stations are located primarily in developing countries — usually in rural areas that have minimal access to the electrical grid. Currently, these rural base stations are usually powered with generators that run on diesel fuel.

The GSMA conducted a comprehensive study and found that, worldwide, only 1,500 base stations are powered by renewable energy. If the GSMA can reach its goal, the initiative will save up to 2.5 billion liters of diesel fuel each year. It will also cut carbon emissions for those stations by as much as 6.3 million tons.

The Association will face a few challenges, including a variety of reasons that mobile operators have been reluctant to adopt renewable-energy technologies. One of the biggest is a lack of expertise in using renewable energy to power base stations. The equipment is also expensive, and can be difficult to transport to remote stations. But as fuel prices rise, the GSMA is sure that more mobile operators will find that renewable energy is the way to go. At current fuel prices, the GSMA estimates that operators who make the switch could recoup their costs in as little as 24 months.

The GSMA has already started exploring renewable options for base-station projects. Several have been successful, such as a Digicel project to power 17 new base stations on the island of Vanuatu with wind and solar energy and an Ericsson project to use waste cooking oil to power more than 350 base stations in India.

"As oil becomes more scarce and expensive, renewable energy will be used more and more to power telecommunications networks anywhere that grid power is not available," said John Delves, CEO of Digicel Vanuatu in a press release. "Using alternative power solutions, such as harnessing wind and solar energy, will help lower our operational expenditure and reduce our environmental impact, giving people in the more remote islands of Vanuatu access to communications for the first time."

Image — GSMA

The Advent Eco PC is the latest gadget in green computing.

Every day, it seems, a new gadget hits the market that promises to be faster and more sophisticated, while making life easier for consumers. The Eco PC is no different, but more importantly it will also save consumers money on their electricity bills.

The Eco PC contains a unique system that cools without requiring a fan. Traditional computers operate a fan to cool the machine, often using a significant amount of the total energy consumption. The Eco PC’s cooling system only generates 25 watts, which is less than some light bulbs. It is anticipated that by continuously running the Eco PC in an energy saving mode, the PC will cost a mere $12 to power per year.

An additional benefit, of course, is a drop in greenhouse gas emissions. The Eco PC also features a Core 2 Duo processor, 2 gigabites of RAM, a 160 GB hard drive, and runs the Windows Vista operating system. Total cost for the Eco PC is $1,100.

Mexican resorts are working to live in harmony with their can’t-be-beat scenery.

What makes the Mexican-Caribbean resort area, Playa Mujeres, so naturally beautiful is the lush vegetation and well cared for fauna habitat that has remained relatively undisturbed even as resorts grew up in their midst.

A new resort, Capricho Residences, is working with the Mexican government to protect the area’s vegetation, beaches and animals by developing the community in sustainable ways. The goal is to implement an “environmentally-saturated” life for its residents and guests at the resort’s hotel.

Capricho's eco-friendly measures are intended to reduce environmental impact in several ways: by decreasing energy consumption, which generally means burning fossil fuels; preservation of the habitat for native plants and animals; committing to use cleaning products that are less harmful to the environment; reuse of precious water resources; and smart design features that make better use of clean energy.

Capricho will develop only 40 percent of the resort's 900 acres, leaving the rest as a nature preserve. There is also a restoration plan for vegetation: Sensitive plants will be transferred to nurseries during construction, then replanted later.  

Wastewater will be used for landscaping and for maintaining two nearby golf courses. Electrical needs will be replaced, where possible, using solar power. Swimming pools will be chemical free (by replacing harsh cleaners and purifiers with saline based products) and also heated using solar power.

An air conditioning system that operates using a mini reservoir and recycled water is expected to cool homes with a 60 percent savings on energy demands.

Motion sensors will be used to make the air conditioning system, as well as lighting components, more energy efficient. When rooms are unoccupied, both systems will use the minimum. Insulated glass windows and doors will help prevent unwanted exchange of hot or cool air introduction or loss in the homes. By also insulating ceilings, the homes will need less of the air conditioning system to keep things cool. Stone and wood materials will also be used in the construction of Capricho.

England's Queen Elizabeth II is buying what will be the largest wind turbine in the world. The Crown Estate, which manages the royal property, has agreed to purchase the turbine for an undisclosed sum.

Clipper Windpower of California is building the extra-large turbine: It was originally slated to be 7.5 megawatts, but has been increased to 10 megawatts. It will generate five times the power produced by typical turbines in a commercial operation. The queen's wind turbine will have a wingspan the length of two soccer fields and will be 574 feet tall — by comparison, Big Ben stands 316 feet tall. Luckily, Big Ben doesn't have to worry too much about the competition: The wind turbine will be put in place off the British coast. While other wind-turbine installers might have to worry about making special arrangements with the government to erect such a large turbine, it happens that the Crown Estate, among managing $14 billion in other assets, controls the seas up to 14 miles off England's coast.

The queen's wind turbine is a prototype for Clipper's Britannia project, which envisions a new generation of extra-large turbines mounted on deep-sea floating platforms. This turbine in particular could power 3,700 homes. It's expected to go into operation in 2012.

Photo

A new Lousiana waterpark will rely on solar power to heat its pools, slides and more. Sunrise Solar, a San Antonio-based firm known for its work with solar water heating systems, will develop and install the system. Sunrise will also design solar-powered lighting for the park, including an LED system planned for a large entertainment center. The park will also have an auxiliary solar power system.

“This will be America’s first truly ‘green’ water park and entertainment center,” Eddie Austin, the CEO of Sunrise Solar, told the San Antonio Business Journal. "This project will include multiple solar technologies – solar heating for the pools and water attractions; solar entertainment systems; and solar power generation. Our design proposal will make this a cutting-edge, energy-efficient entertainment venue with an exceptionally small carbon footprint.”

Solar Sunrise has released no financial details regarding the waterpark, which will be located near Lake Charles, La. The company's success as a regional operation proves, though, that you don't need huge piles of venture capital or a California address to be successful in the solar power industry.

Photo — ELNewberry

Uncertainty continues dogging the financial markets this week as investors around the world watch what becomes of the U.S. Treasury's proposed bailout plan. But despite the upheaval, investors at recently acquired Merrill Lynch remain upbeat about the potential future of solar power manufacturers. 

Fifty-three percent of Merrill Lynch customers participating in a survey described their attitude toward solar stocks as “bullish,” indicating their faith in the sector’s ability to return profits.  More than half of the remaining respondents (28 percent) said they were neutral, placing potential gains on a par with the rest of the market. This fairly optimistic stance reflects an earlier Merrill Lynch survey, in which 63 percent described themselves as “underweight” on solar investments. The surveys reflect a positive attitude and eagerness to buy that should improve solar’s returns in a tumultuous market where psychology is likely to play a large role. 

Potential buyers in overseas markets should help fuel investor confidence, the Merrill Lynch survey suggests. European Union carbon caps, along with Italy’s solar-friendly renewable tariffs, make this investment attractive to Italians. Anti-nuclear sentiment, the country's long-standing history of using renewable energy, and similar EU carbon restrictions make Germany a another attractive place for solar manufacturers.

Meanwhile, in the United States, financial instability and inflationary pressures currently surrounding the dollar have many U.S. solar manufacturers looking abroad. 

The outcome of the presidential election may also play a large role determining the strength of solar investing. While only a minority of Merrill Lynch’s investors anticipate the U.S. solar tax credit will be renewed before the end of the year, an administration less historically tied to fossil fuel companies could provide a tremendous boost for the sector. Insufficient government subsidies were widely singled out by Merrill Lynch investors as the primary stumbling block to solar investment, and a more favorable political climate could change that, too.

That having been said, other problems still leave many investors hesitant. The influx of scientific interest and venture capital into solar firms has resulted in a very crowded market. While clear leaders are emerging, uncertainty still reigns.  A massive contract handed out by PG&E to Optisolar, a relatively unknown thin-film manufacturer, has shown that picking out the next significant market presence can be tough; however, the flip side of this is that viable firms still remain among unknown and lower-priced competitors.

Regardless of sector, short-term investments look to be plagued with uncertainty and volatility. However, once the worldwide financial markets see how the U.S. plans to deal with the current crisis, solar markets should emerge as a sound investment for reliable growth.

The Senate has succeeded in passing the Baucus-Grassley Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008 on the ninth attempt for most of its renewable energy provisions, as part of a "Christmas tree" tax bill to save the AMT and extend help to disaster victims.

The difficulty of passing these clean energy provisions came about because too few Senate Republicans support clean energy or believe that climate change is a concern. A glance through these 50 times that McCain voted against clean energy (other than nuclear power) shows that for the most part, Republicans voted 50 times against clean energy too: for coal and oil, against solar and wind, waves and geothermal.

Although the Senate currently has a 51 Democrat "majority" (49 Republicans), it is almost impossible to pass any legislation the Republicans don't support because before they can vote, they need to vote to have a vote. And only when 60 agree to a vote, will there even be a chance of it. So, contrary to what most people believe, you don't need a mere 51 votes to pass legislation, you actually need 60 to hurdle the cloture-vote.

This 60 cloture-vote problem leads to a great deal of frustration. Voters of both persuasions become disgusted with the apparent ineffectiveness of "the congress" while not understanding the reason, and become apathetic and cynical. But it would be better if we just faced the reason for the difficulty, realizing that only by our succeeding in voting in a 60-40 majority Senate (either way), will the Senate be able to effect change.

But this Baucus amendment was different. It had come within a hair's breadth of passage last December with a 59 cloture-vote. It had bipartisan support. You need 66 votes to prevent a White House veto, and typically, the Bush White House has also not supported Democratic energy bills. But this time around the Baucus/Grassley bill easily hurdled its cloture of 60, passing by a decidedly veto-proof 93-2.

The extension for production tax credits for wind and solar had failed repeatedly; the Republicans filibustered the cloture-vote eight times to prevent it. The funding mechanism had also failed in the past because Senate Republicans did not support reducing oil company subsidies.

Nevertheless, this bill funds renewable extensions by freezing a tax break for oil and gas companies at the current rate.  It also tightens the rules on the taxes that oil and gas companies pay on income earned overseas, creating the $17 billion in funding needed, and also partly offset with new limits on hedge-fund managers' ability to defer taxes on compensation they hold overseas. Republicans gave up on preventing taxes on fossil fuels, but gained supports for tar-sands and oil shale development: refiners would be able to write off investments faster. Democrats also made concessions that weakened the clean energy aspects.

But it passed! Until we have 60 Democrats in the Senate, we are unlikely to pass meaningful renewable energy legislation. For now, this is what we've got:

• An extension of the production tax credit (PTC) for wind for one year, and the PTC for solar, biomass, and wave and ocean tide projects for two years. Less than Democrats wanted (ten years was the original bill) but at least enough to save the much feared expiration at the end of this year. It includes an extension of the research and development tax credit totaling some $19 billion over 10 years that will help in inventing new energy sources such as such as algae development.
• Buyers of plug-in electric cars and plug-in hybrids will get a tax break of up to $7,500, depending on battery capacity of the vehicle: with a Volt or similar EV at the higher end. (Again, less than the original bill which encouraged the development of commercial delivery van PHEVs and EVs with a subsidy of up to $15,000.)
• Businesses would get a 30 percent tax credit for investing in solar, wind, geothermal and ocean energy equipment for eight more years. (And this includes home-based businesses)
• Homeowners could claim a tax credit of up to 10 percent of the cost of all qualified energy efficiency improvements, such as insulation, replacement windows, water heaters and heating and cooling equipment (which essentially reinstates identical LIHEAP legislation that Bush and the Republicans have repeatedly opposed) There are also incentives to use smart meters for more efficient home energy use.
• Under the Senate bill, solar tax credits will be extended for eight years, for both commercial and residential consumers. It includes a complete elimination of the $2000 cap for residential systems, allowing residential credits to rise to the 30% credit that commercial buildings get, and includes an allowance for utilities to make use of the commercial credit.
• Residential energy-efficient property credit would be extended through 2016, and the definition of the systems that qualify for that credit would be expanded to include wind investment and also home geothermal heat pumps, which would get 30% off, with a cap of $6,667.

Given this long and frustrating journey to pass clean energy legislation of any sort, I can understand Senator Reid's sentiments tonight as he said -- and probably through clenched teeth -- as he handed it back to the House, where it had begun as Rangel's HR6049: "If they try to mess with our package, it will come back here, it will die, and we... will have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory."

Indeed, the House, with its abundance of Democrats, should not assume anything else can pass the Senate with that 60 cloture-vote hurdle. As Senator Reid concedes--"Don't send us back something else. We can't get it passed."

Related stories:
McCain's 50 Votes Against Clean Energy
Obama's Clean Energy Voting Record

Envia, a Canadian conversion company, this week announced another first: its plug-in hybrid conversion of the Ford F-150. They already convert these into all-electric vehicles, as I noted last month.

Now they also offer a plug-in hybrid conversion alternative to their fully electrified Fords, tuning up the world's most popular pickup from a 15 MPG toad into a 48 MPG prince! And all the while, reducing carbon emissions by 63 percent.

CEO Jay Giraud explains why he specializes in conversions of vehicles already on the road: "Many people think the problem will be solved when the big automakers finally launch their plug-in hybrids, but that will fix only a small number of new cars.”

Roughly 17 million new cars are bought each year, but Giraud sees a much larger opportunity to reduce carbon in the 275 million cars already on the road in North America. Actually, some fleet owners are bringing him brand new Fords to convert.

Envia's conversion of the Ford F-150 gets an all-electric range of 38 miles or a speed of 37 miles per hour before the gas kicks in. The conversion costs $25,000, which would have a payback time of five years at 48 miles per gallon.

Or, hey, if you are not a fleet owner but are in the market for a brand new truck, Ford has plans to take care of this 15 MPG problem themselves: They will be improving the mileage on their F-150 from 15 to 22 MPG. Eventually, that is. But first we must use up all the oil.

Via the EV Podcast

Street Art by Peter Gibson - Roadsworth: all rights reserved
 

While the majority of the world’s efforts to stem the impacts of climate change have been focused on attacking the root cause, the Global Crop Diversity Trust is seeking to ameliorate one of the most pressing symptoms: the effects of climate change on crops. 

The Trust announced a project today that seeks a climate-proof crop strain, able to take the floods, droughts, temperature swings and other impacts of increased global food temperatures, while still meeting the food yields required by a global population. Though hampered by a lack of concrete information on specific traits in individual crop strains, the effort is to make a comprehensive profile of candidate plants within 2 years.

The Trust, better known for its “doomsday vault“ on the remote island of Svalbard that stores viable samples of plant seeds against global loss of biodiversity, fills an important niche in protecting the global food supply. While corporately funded efforts to improve the fitness of food crops generally focus on pesticide resistance, it may be that as the effects of climate change become more pronounced, private enterprises will build upon the GCDT’s research.

Much as we treehuggers hate the thought, we need to dig up the earth to build a clean power economy. To put solar panels on more roofs, we have to mine silicon. To build the batteries to run an electric-vehicle nation, we need to mine lithium.

Initially at least, building wind turbines and solar panels means digging raw materials like iron ore and silicon out of the earth -- just like we do for supplies of dirty energy, fossil fuels like oil and coal.

The difference is that a dumptruck load of steel for a wind turbine will provide energy for more than 100 years, but a truckload of tar-sand, coal or oil goes up in smoke in a few hours.

Making mining more eco-friendly is part of creating a carbon-neutral world. Caterpillar is taking a step in that direction by unveiling the world's largest electric vehicle this week at the Nevada mining truck expo -- a 345-ton all-electric mining truck that will go into production in 2010. Another model, a 250-ton truck, will be available with electric or combustion-engine options.

Caterpillar, in business for 80 years, has a corner on this market: No other manufacturer is attempting to build trucks heavy enough to be used for mining -- heavier than 200 tons -- with an electric motor. That may have something to do with Caterpillar joining the carbon-responsible industry group USCAP.

In the late 1960s, Caterpillar was one of the first manufacturers to try electric-drive trucks. It abandoned that line of vehicles, but now that we're counting carbon emissions, the company is developing truck models that can be used by a more climate-friendly mining industry.

To reduce impact on the environment, electric-powered mining trucks would need to be charged using clean power from wind, solar or geothermal generation. Currently, mining silicon is dirty primarily because of mining truck diesel emissions.

Wind's greatest potential is often realized out where people don't live (because it's too windy) but mining can be done there. Solar is best where the solar radiation is so intense that evaporated seas full of lithium can be mined there to run all our EVs. Think of the salt deposits in Nevada.

But what if an industrial-scale solar or wind farm in those areas supplied the charging power for electric mining trucks? How much would this reduce the environmental costs of mining?

Photo by Philip Greenspun

With a recent boom in clean tech investment and increasing global warming awareness, a new business chapter is unfolding in favor of sustainability and the environment. Higher education is no exception; there are more advanced degree programs that focus on sustainability than ever.

Take the Sustainability MBA as your first example. At least twenty such programs have burst onto the scene in the U.S. alone. The University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School offers an enrichment concentration in Sustainable Enterprise for participants. Related opportunities are also available in the form of practicum projects, clubs, internships, conferences, and more. With an expansive network of non-profit, government, and corporate professionals at students' fingertips, the door is wide open for success in sustainability.

The Johns Hopkins Sustainability Initiative offers both undergraduates and graduates the opportunity to enroll in courses that focus sharply on the environment. Topics range "from policy and public health to climate change," indicating an increasing desire for not only education in related fields, but also professionals with such an academic background. More than twenty other programs across the country boast solid sustainability courses.

Environmental Law courses are strongly emerging as well; there are at least twenty programs for J.D. or L.L.M. students. It seems increasingly difficult to deny that this topic should be close to our hearts and minds when it is making a solid presence in law schools.

For a listing of Matter Network's findings in Sustainability-related programs, please visit this page.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, the largest professional services firm in the world, plans to cut its carbon emissions 20 percent by 2012, according to a plan announced Tuesday by the company.

The plan is based on 2007 emissions levels.

The company has spent the last 12 months measuring its carbon footprint and identifying steps that can be taken across the country as a whole, including improving infrastructure, supply chain and employee commuting. The analysis was conducted by a team of sustainability professionals who are a part of PricewaterhouseCoopers' advisory practice.

"Climate change has become a matter of managing risks, costs and reputation," said Dennis Nally, the chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers, in a press release. "We believe that companies that embrace the issue of climate change will be better prepared to compete - and win - in tomorrow's increasingly constrained carbon economy. Our commitment positions us as a leader in the profession and the industry."

Beyond the environmental benefits, PricewaterhouseCoopers expects to improve costs as well as to create an advantage in recruiting talent. The move to become greener is expected to improve employee pride in the company.

The announcement was made as part of the unveiling of the Carbon Disclosure Project's Global 500 and S&P 500 reports. PricewaterhouseCoopers advised the Carbon Disclosure Project and has written a number of reports for the organization.

Image — PricewaterhouseCoopers

Applied Materials, a Silicon Valley tech company, has installed a photovoltaic array covering its parking lots. The 2.1 megawatt system takes advantage of the huge space requirement of a parking lot by sucking up all the solar heat that normally would be beating down on cars all day. Applied Materials seems to be using the generated energy to offset the its energy needs, but the system is also ideal for charging electric cars.

Applied Materials expects the system to eliminate 2,700 tons of carbon dioxide emissions — the output of approximately 450 cars. The installation was actually made in two parts: a 950-kilowatt SunPower PowerGuard unit and a 1.2-megawatt SunPower Tracker unit. The first part of the system went into operation in November 2007 and has already generated approximately 1,400 megawatt hours. The second part was completed just last week. Interestingly, the solar panels supplied by SunPower use solar cells that are manufactured in a process involving Applied Materials' Baccini technology.

The Sunnyvale, California company makes a variety of high-tech products, including semi-conducters. Applied Materials made a point of plugging the solar energy tax credit in its announcement, and asked Congress to renew it.

Image — Applied Materials

Ted Turner's name is associated with a whole list of endeavors, but lately he's been focusing on "The Green Restaurant Revolution." Along with George McKerrow Jr., his partner in Ted's Montana Grill, Turner has toured the country, meeting with restaurant owners and discussing ways to make restaurants greener. The two have visited Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, New York City and Washington D.C. and met with celebrity chefs and journalists, hospitality professionals and culinary students, and restaurant operators. Discussions focused on what can be done in daily operations to make individual restaurants and the restaurant industry as a whole more environmentally friendly.

Ted's Montana Grill was founded in 2002. Since then, it has been committed to being green. Almost all of the paper, plastic, aluminum and glass products used at Ted's Montana Grill are recycled. Even the to-go cutlery is environmentally friendly: Rather than using plastic forks, the restaurant provides silverware made from potato starch. From lighting to cleaning products, Ted's Montana Grill strives to be eco-friendly in all of its locations scattered around 20 states.

"There are almost a million restaurants operating today in the United States alone," McKerrow said in a press release. "Imagine if each restaurant made only one small change to preserve resources what a huge impact we can make. We know we're only a small part of the equation, but together we can make a big difference."

Restaurant owners seem to be coming to the same conclusion that other business owners are reaching: Operating a green business saves money. Restaurants have high overheads when it comes to power and water and more and can save money through even minor efficiencies. It's great that Turner is supporting an effort to educate restaurant owners on environmentally-friendly measures, and I think many of those owners will embrace any opportunity to cut costs.

Highlights of the tour are available in a podcast featured on the Ted's Montana Grill website, as well as on the new National Restaurant Association website for conservation, Conserve.Restaurant.org. The National Restaurant Association provides a variety of environmental programs and products for restaurants, ranging from tips for conservation to leads for improved food service technology. The new website was partially funded by a grant from the Turner Foundation. It also received help from Energy Star (the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency) and the Food Service Technology Center.

Photo — Ted's Montana Grill

Adding further evidence to the notion that a market economy can promote environmental improvement, a report today from Belgium found that carbon sequestration could pay for itself as early as 2030.  

Currently, sequestration, also referred to as CCS (carbon sequestration and storage), is seen as one of the most easily adopted routes to a carbon-neutral future, because—in theory, anyway—it can be adapted to existing, cost effective coal-power plants. 

However, the relative newness of the technology means that utilities and electrical companies have had to develop and implement it at a loss—sometimes in excess of a billion dollars per power plant. 

While I find this study’s findings encouraging, it’s important to note that they take into account many factors that may not apply in certain circumstances. For instance, without the comprehensive carbon cap-and-trade system currently in use in Europe, there would be no price pressure on non-sequestered emissions to raise the incentives for industries to invest in sequestering infrastructure. 

Similarly, the report seems not to address some of the other problems currently associated with fossil-fuel technologies, such as groundwater pollution and habitat destruction. 

After months of oil prices on a steady decline, prices leapt this week on news of a Federal bailout of the troubled American financial markets. In fact, the price of oil experienced the largest one-day jump in history yesterday, rising $18 before finally settling at $122.60 a barrel.

While the reaction represents market consensus that American demand for oil will not ease, eco- and dollar-conscious Americans are looking to buck that trend through a variety of cost-saving measures. Among the most creative I’ve heard: turning to more home-cooked meals.

While commercial kitchens that prepare food for hundreds of people in an evening may seem more energy-efficient, a home-cooked meal has several advantages that give it the sustainability edge. Greater control over ingredient sources allows more use of local produce and meats, and less reliance on environmentally noisome industrial farms.

A generally more leisurely cooking pace allows for less waste, and more food collected for leftovers. The use of scraps in compost can help promote more low-impact home vegetable gardens, and after the carbon emissions associated with traveling to and from restaurants are factored in, the home cooked meal is an easy winner in terms of environmental impact.

Here's another European EV we should be watching.

The QUICC! DiVa (which started life as the much-easier-to-remember Innovan) makes its debut at the Paris show in October,  and could be available in the United States, along with other carbon-neutral driving options, if GM's chairman is right about government plans to tear down the NHTSA wall that currently prevents their being imported.

This featherweight utility van EV meets cradle-to-cradle sustainability requirements, and, being made of lightweight recycled plastic, weighs in at under 1,900 pounds, including batteries. It has a range of 90 miles on a charge and is able to reach 75 mph. It can carry 1,300 pounds of cargo in addition to two passengers.

So its no wonder that the very sustainable Dutch InnoVan (sorry: the Quicc! DiVa) won the Most Promising Technology award, which comes with millions of euros in investment capital from Econcern.

There are already customers lined up for the limited edition next spring, and it has attracted the attention of Johann Tomforde, the designer who made the Smart so clever. He'll help sharpen up the design a bit before it goes into mass production in 2010. I'm hoping he'll take care of those dorky looking lights.

DuraCar's Guido Boosten says that they want to test even lighter weight cradle-to-cradle, recycled-plastic options and different batteries in this test run. That would include the safer and more durable LiFePO4. Boosten says the most important thing right now is to get the vehicles on the road and find out how they perform in real life, rather than just relying on lab testing.

LiFePo4 batteries provide full power until they are completely discharged. In electric vehicles and plug-in electric cars, they will typically last for 6 or 7 years, will not catch fire or explode with overcharging, and can be safely recharged in 15 minutes. A123 Systems has teamed up with GM to develop LiFePO4 batteries for the Chevy Volt, and Lithium Technology Corporation has been working with GM, Toyota and U.C. Davis to develop them for all-electric and hybrid vehicles.

Via AutoblogGreen and MetaEfficient

The 50 largest cities in the United States are at least thinking green, according to the 2008 SustainLane U.S. City Rankings released Monday.

SustainLane ranks the cities in 16 different economic, environmental and clean-tech categories.

"The SustainLane U.S. City Rankings speak ... to the local leadership found across America and how mayors, city councils and their offices of sustainability are preparing their cities for resource deficits due to high gas and energy prices, drought, rising food prices and other issues," said James Elsen, the CEO of SustainLane Media, in a press release.

This year, SustainLane found trends that helped raise municipal scores across the board. One of the biggest is the general mainstreaming of the green movement. City administrators nationwide are considering the sustainability of their cities, appointing sustainability offices, creating climate change plans and mandating green municipalities.

The top five cities this year are Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and New York.

The full report is available on the SustainLane website. The 2008 City Rankings will be featured at the world's first green cities and communities conference which begins Oct. 1 in Geneva, Switzerland. SustainLane started publishing its ranking reports in 2005. Since then, SustainLane has seen both median and average scores increase significantly.

Image — SustainLane

In a new analysis of the proposed European Union emissions trading scheme, members of Europe's aluminium, steel and cement industries are likely to qualify for free carbon allowances. The allowances would compensate companies that find it harder to compete on an international level as they meet new carbon constraints. The analysis focuses on "carbon leakage" — the relocation of production to areas with less stringent carbon emissions standards. The report noted that aluminium, steel and cement producers are especially vulnerable.

Beyond suggesting free carbon allowances, the same report set out a three-part risk assessment plan to measure the threat of carbon leakage. First, potential price increases must be calculated, including both costs incurred by a manufacturer's own emissions and by the higher cost of electricity. Second, the assessment must consider such factors as transportation costs and the geographical market for the product in question. Third, the effect of an new international climate treaty expected to be adopted next December must be considered.

The commission plans to continue its investigation and finalize a list of sectors considered at risk due to carbon leakage by 2011, despite efforts by members of the European Parliament to speed up the process.

Photo — mikko_l

The first coal-fired power plant designed from the ground up to capture carbon emissions began operations this month in Spremberg, Germany. The new plant is known as the Schwarze Pumpe pilot plant. It replaces a Communist-era power station so notorious for its pollution that Spremberg was nicknamed "Stinky Town." Vattenfall, a Swedish power company, constructed and operates the new plant.

Spremberg's new facility is on the small side: It generates only 30 megawatts of power. In order to capture carbon emissions, the plant's operations are a little more complicated than "burn coal and get energy." Instead, the coal is burned in a special environment where nitrogen has been removed from the air. The environment is oxygen-rich and its combustion produces carbon dioxide and water vapor as waste. The process is repeated, effectively distilling the carbon dioxide into a gas that can be 98 percent carbon dioxide. That gas is cooled and liquefied and will eventually be deposited underground in a depleted gas field.

Vattenfall says that, at least in theory, the plant will produce almost zero pollution. Lars Strömberg, the vice president of Vattenfell, told Technology Review that absolutely no emissions is impossible, "but we will come very, very close to this target."

The price of minimal emissions, so far, has been efficiency. The process of compressing and transporting carbon dioxide requires significant energy, as does the removal of nitrogen from the air used to combust coal. Vattenfall is using the Schwarze Pumpe plant as a pilot and hoping to improve efficiency through a variety of measures. The testing program is expected to last three years. Beyond improving efficiency, Vattenfall will also explore exactly what proportion of carbon emissions can be eliminated in a practical setting.

If all goes well in the testing phase, Vattenfall plans to scale its process to a larger demonstration plant capable of generating between 300 and 500 megawatts by 2015. The company hopes to have 1,000-megawatt commercial plants in place after 2020. The pilot plant cost approximately 70 million euros to construct.

Clean coal continues to face some controversy, since it runs counter to the prevailing feeling that rather than spending money on coal, energy companies should focus on renewable resources. Nevertheless, clean coal seems preferable to efforts to drill offshore. If Vattenfall can make coal a practical option, with the effective elimination of emissions, it may prove a transition technology worth considering.

Image — Vattenfall

Update: An addition from Thursday Bram:
The changes will start with an effort to reform Chicago's energy code: the City Council is scheduled to review an ordinance to do just that next month. Updates to the code include requirements for better insulation, heating and cooling systems and windows in all commercial, industrial and residential buildings. Chicago's administrators also have an agreement in place with two of the coal-fired power plants that provide the city with electricity: they will either cut emissions or shut down entirely by 2015 and 2017 respectively.

Over all, the plan includes what seems like every technique for improving energy efficiency, using renewable energy and otherwise eliminating sources of carbon emissions: the city will increase recycling, support car-pooling, promote alternative fuels and expand the number of green rooftops. Chicago administrators are considering providing incentives to individuals and businesses who participate in such programs. They have not ruled out mandates or fees, either.

Officials have reported that the city of Chicago emits 34.6 million metric tons of carbon emissions annually. City administrators have said that Chicago will not be able to avoid climate change entirely, but as part of the effort to prevent climate change, plans have been made to help Chicago deal with its affects. Those efforts will include such steps as creating a heat warning system and preparing for increases in rainfall and flooding.

Coffee retailer Jazzman’s Café is launching what may be the ultimate in sustainable coffee. "Bird Friendly coffee" is the first African coffee to be doubly certified in sustainability for its efforts to preserve both forests and bird habitat.

Jazzman’s provides an array of coffee blends using beans harvested from farming cooperatives. The Bird Friendly beans are harvested from an African co-op of 118 small farms. All farms use sustainable agriculture practices and business that benefits local communities and economies.

Sodexo’s Retail Brand Group operates Jazzman’s Café and debuted the new brand of coffee at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. Jazzman’s will begin selling the Bird Friendly brand throughout its 200 stores this month.

The SMBC and the National Zoological Park created the Bird Friendly certification in the late 1990s to encourage changes in the way coffee was farmed in sensitive regions like Africa, where migratory bird habitats were being destroyed at rapid rates. To be certified as a Bird Friendly coffee producer, Jazzman's and Sodexo had to grow their beans without using pesticides. They also had to provide shade trees and vegetation to support migratory birds and donate 25 cents per pound to support SMBC research and other conservation programs. They are also prohibited from clear-cutting forests to provide growing land.

Scientists work to assist farmers in developing more sustainable and habitat-protecting methods. The shaded farms provide food sources like insects and pollen for the migrating birds, as well as for other indigenous animals. Trees also feed nutrients into the soil and help reduce the soil available for weeds to colonize. Additionally, they support other industries by providing fruit, firewood, lumber and medical resources.

Petroleum products derived from tar sands, which have three times the carbon emissions of traditional gasoline, are a risky investment, because new low-carbon fuel standards will increasingly close off sections of the American market to them.

Requirements that alternative fuels must be at least 20 percent lower in carbon emissions than oil have already been implemented in California, where Democrats control the legislature.

Clean fuel standards are supported by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, and other Senate Democrats who could gain a filibuster-proof, 60-vote majority in the November elections. If that happens, any energy bill passed in 2009 would likely put an end to tar sands oil.

Obama's opponent in the presidential race, Arizona Sen. John McCain, stopped a similar bill from becoming law by his "veto" of the 2007 energy bill cloture-vote in December, killing the clean fuels requirement and many other clean energy requirements. But it will come up for a vote again and in the meantime voters are becoming increasingly aware of the dangers of scraping the bottom of this barrel while climate catastrophe looms.

The Guardian quotes Mark Hoskin, a senior partner at investment advisers Holden & Partners, as saying, “There is a good chance that tar sands could be to the oil industry what sub-prime lending was to the banking sector. 

"The recent banking crisis has shown how the financial markets can totally misjudge both the risks and values inherent in company balance sheets," Hoskin said. "Oil companies depend on oil reserves for their market values."

DesmogBlog lists the sub-prime aspects of this ghoulish bet against the environment:

• Oil sands mining is licensed to use twice the amount of fresh water that the entire city of Calgary uses in a year.
• At least 90 percent of the fresh water used in the oil sands ends up in tailing ponds so toxic that propane cannons are used to keep ducks from landing.
• Processing the oil sands uses enough natural gas in a day to heat 3 million homes. 
• The toxic tailing ponds are considered one of the largest human-made structures in the world.
• The ponds span 50 square kilometers and can be seen from space.
• Producing a barrel of oil from the oil sands produces three times more greenhouse gas emissions than a barrel of conventional oil.

So, why would you invest in a fuel that is unlikely to be legal within a decade? I guess you would be counting on a McCain-Palin victory.

Related stories:
McCain's 50 Votes Against Clean Energy
Obama's Clean Energy Voting Record
Queensland Premier Follows In Rudd's Carbon Footsteps

Via Treehugger Mathew McDermott

Outdoor apparel retailer Timberland is sponsoring “Dig It,” a program established to encourage the collaboration of artists and eco activists.

Each Dig It event will consist of a day full of tree planting and concerts and the introduction of Timberland’s new eco line of products, Earthkeepers. Dig It events will take place in locations across the U.S. including Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco throughout the month of October.

Timberland hopes to plant one million trees through ongoing Dig it events by the year 2010. Dig It will receive some logistical assistance from American Forests volunteers who will plant trees along with local community volunteers and in partnership with city environmental programs and organizations.

For example, San Francisco’s Friends of the Urban Forest will send volunteers and locate opportunities for tree-planting around the city. More trees will improve local air quality, capture stormwater and carbon dioxide, and provide habitat for birds and insects. When the day is done and all the trees have been planted, Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard, The Hank Khoir, and Vince Mira will treat volunteers to an exclusive concert. Noted photographer James Balog will showcase his recent nature photography, addressing the audience about climate change. His work showcases melting glaciers and deforestation.

The Earthkeepers product line is a collection of apparel and footwear made from organic and recycled rubber, leather, cotton and wool. Shoe laces and rubber soles are made from recycled materials, while cardboard boxes are made from recycled paper and recycled again after use. Shoes are assembled using water- or soy-based adhesives, and made in a manufacturing plant powered by sun and wind. Timberland apparel travels using environmentally conscious freight services and 100 percent recycled packaging.

The Earthkeepers line keeps with Timberland’s mantra: “Our place in this world is bigger than the things we put in it. So we volunteer in our communities. Making new products goes hand in hand with making things better. That means reducing our carbon footprint and being as environmentally responsible as we can.”

Brita is sponsoring a bike ride for change, climate change that is. The Brita Climate Ride 2008 starting this weekend is “the first multi-day bicycle tour” established to generate attention and funding for climate change resolutions like renewable energy and green building legislation.

And what better way than to travel by a carbon neutral ride (well, carbon free during the operation of the bicycle). Starting on Saturday, more than 100 cyclists will begin their journey from Manhattan and over the next five days, ride through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, ending with a dramatic presence in Washington D.C.

Riders will cycle 300 miles through some of the first states to stand up for change (aka independence from Britain) 200 plus years ago. And now, riders will do the same for the global climate change crisis. To keep all riders in peak mental condition, speakers will share climate change data and science, potential policy solutions, and methods for reducing contributions for climate change throughout their ride, sort of like a traveling workshop. To participate, riders raised $2,250 each for a total of more than $200,000 for the cause. Water filter company Brita will donate the proceeds to Focus the Nation and Clean Air – Cool Planet. Brita is sponsoring the ride as part of their sustainability efforts and ways to reduce their environmental impacts.
 

Like many new startup companies -- especially the electric vehicle startups --  Miles EV is headquartered in a "Green State," in its case California.

The CEO, activist/entrepreneur Miles Rubin was a Ralph Lauren executive before retiring to build his dream vehicle in 2005. His is one of the EV startups planning a freeway speed EV due on these shores in 2010, (a vehicle test-driven by eco-Mayor Bloomberg in China). Like a true garmento, Miles will manufacture vehicles in China.

Miles already builds NEVs (neighborhood electric vehicles: speed-limited to 25 mph) which he sells in places like the City of Chicago, NASA, UCLA and CalState Polytech, as well as selling several to a luxury wilderness resort in Montana.

Even in less eco-aware places, locals are beginning to take the law into their own hands, responding to $4-a-gallon gasoline. One such private citizen recently succeeded in changing local laws to allow him to drive an actual golf cart on city streets, and no wonder he wanted to: the golf-cart he bought 20 years ago for $300 gets 20 miles on a 10-hour charge.

Coincidentally, since moving its manufacturing plant from China to Kentucky, a "Brown State" not known for environmentalism, California's little "Green State" startup, ZAP had its sales more than double since last year to $737,000 for August . I have seen more of these Zapping around my own "Green State" city of Berkeley this year: small eco businesses such as flower shops and solar installers seem to like the 40 mph ZAP trucks.

But when eco businesses locate outside of the green states, they expand eco-awareness beyond the few Berkeleys of the nation, leading not only to an expanded market, but also to hopefully influence their congressional representatives to be greener. 

Entrepreneurs who are deciding where to locate should keep in mind that until we change the minds of the less environmentally-aware elected officials who today prevent green legislation from passing, extending production tax credits for solar and wind power or promoting EV development will be more challenging.

So, got an eco-business? Move it to a Brown State. You'll be doing all of us a favor.

News and photos from AutoBlogGreen

Owners of Volkswagen's clean diesel vehicles are eligible for $1,300 Federal Income Tax Credit. The Internal Revenue Service has certified that purchase of the 2009 vehicles — the Jetta TDI sedan and SportWagen — qualifies consumers for the Advanced Lean Burn Technology Motor Vehicle income tax credit.

"The $1,300 tax credit provides an even greater value to the upcoming Jetta TDI sedan and SportWagen," said Mark Barnes, the COO of Volkswagen of America, Inc. in a press release. "Our clean diesel vehicles offer consumers the fuel efficiency that they're looking for while providing power, utility, performance, safety and excellent value."

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Jetta TDI gets 29 miles per gallon on city streets and 40 miles per gallon on highways. The Jetta TDI is already popular due to its fuel efficiency, but its qualification for a tax credit seems likely to make it an even better option. While the IRS' goal is not to market Volkswagen's vehicles for them, the tax credit has effectively made it easier for many consumers to buy a clean diesel vehicle. The combination of a tax credit and improved fuel efficiency are certainly great selling points right now, making Volkswagen's marketing that much easier.

Photo — mroach

Seed Media has launched Boho, a new women's magazine covering green lifestyles, travel, beauty, fashion and design. The new magazine will be the first fashion title to be printed on 100 percent post-consumer waste, non-glossy paper with natural soy ink.

Gina La Morte, the founder and editor of Boho, told Folio Magazine in an interview that she felt that this was the perfect time launch a green women's magazine because people are becoming more aware: "They want to make changes in their own environments and their everyday experiences, but still want to read a magazine, so we wanted to do it in the most eco-friendly way possible."

Launching a fairly mainstream fashion magazine focusing on green topics shows that the founders believe in a demand for green issues among a wide variety of demographics. Magazines like Boho can answer such a need without being seen as aggressively eco-friendly. Boho was created to appeal to the average college-aged girl as well as somewhat older readers.

“For us, the girl is freethinking, radical and wants to be a role model,” La Morte said. “She loves fashion, but also loves giving back and recognizes that she can love the fashionable things in life, girly things, but is also concerned about her neighbors.”

Image — Boho

AutoblogGreen brings exciting news today about the next step for the California startup that shook up the auto industry with its successful launch this Spring of the all electric Tesla Roadster. But since none of us can actually afford that, we wait with baited breath to hear of the possible next steps for the company.

Here it is.

Elon Musk, Tesla's founder, who also funded the beginning of SolarCity was musing about a possible SUV, for possibly as little as $20,000, to be built in conjunction with a major automaker, or as he put it: "confident in being able to get to a $30,000 car, or perhaps a $20,000 car, in partnership with a major car company," which may or may not be Daimler: after all Tesla is supplying the batteries for Daimlers EV, the Smart.

Their next-generation WhiteStar, now called the Model-S, was to be around $50,000. Musk said:"Tesla's partnership with Daimler won't focus on its Model S". Tesla always said that they were planning on a $50,000 vehicle next after the Roadster, that would be able to get into the $20,000 - $30,000 range. It appears that Musk is thinking ahead, talking about this third iteration.

Interestingly, he mentioned the possibility of swappable batteries, a la Better Place. This is not the mainstream direction being taken in the budding EV industry. FastCharge technologies, (where consumers could slow charge at home while they sleep, like with a cell phone, but have the option to go to the FastCharge station for a quick top-up) is favored by more companies, for instance Mitsubishi and Subaru for their iMiEV and R4e and Daimler, for their Smart.

The third charging option EV companies are considering is GM's innovative onboard recharging that they are pioneering with their Volt - and previously Tesla had floated that idea for their WhiteStar Model-S. So the meaning of this Better Place battery-swap idea is very interesting to consider: maybe GM is struggling with the recharger? Maybe last month's huge Smart FastCharging test in Berlin didn't pan out? In any totally new technology there will be gremlins. We may be surprised by which technology becomes the standard ultimately.

While AutoblogGreen rather sneers at this idea of an SUV as an EV, I found when I hosted the SFEVA booth at the Marin Ecofest last year, that it was, surprisingly, precisely the very eco minded moms with their wet sandy-footed tousle-haired kids returning from the beach with two giant wet dogs in the back that most adored the saved RAV4 SUV EV we had showing at our booth.

Via AutoblogGreen
Photo by Michael Kelley

While inventors three times his age are struggling with the ongoing effort to improve solar cell efficiency, one 12-year-old boy may have found the Holy Grail.

Young William Yuan has blasted beyond the typical efficiency jumps of 30 or 40 percent by achieving an astounding 500 percent energy efficiency improvement.

This seventh grader in Oregon titled his project, "A Highly-Efficient 3-Dimensional Nanotube Solar Cell for Visible and UV Light." While the name may be unwieldy, it stands a shot at changing the energy industry by making solar energy far easier to harness and distribute.

At the heart of Yuan's project is a special solar cell that can harness both visible and ultraviolet light. Most solar cells in use today are either photovoltaic, meaning they harness only visible light, or thermal. While visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light are all heavily scattered or absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere, ultraviolet light comes in at shorter wavelengths and with higher energy than both visible and infrared light. Ultraviolet light can provide more energy to a collector than other, longer-wavelength members of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The two keys to Yuan's solar cells' efficiency are that they're engineered to stand freely in three dimensions, which allows them to collect more light, and that they make use of carbon nanotubes, allowing the cell to distribute the energy it collects without dissipating as much as traditional cells do.

Yuan is looking for a manufacturer to invest in building his new solar cell, and likely won't have much of a problem. Though he received encouragement from his middle school science teacher throughout his research, this is no mere school science experiment: the Davidson Institute For Talent Development awarded Yuan a $25,000 scholarship to allow him to work on the project. 

Minnesota-based 3M Co., a major supplier of plastic, electronic, and office products including many familiar brands, is launching a new business unit focused on renewable power and the supplemental products needed to support installation of solar and wind-power technologies.

This operation will be dedicated to improving 3M’s position in the energy market. Currently, the company produces $200 million worth of solar panels and films used in various window and rooftop solar applications. 3M hopes to expand that share significantly via its new renewable energy business unit.

This renewable energies venture is not the only green business practice 3M has in the works. The 3M Environmental Policy outlines efforts the company will take to reduce its environmental impacts, including increasing energy efficiency, reducing air pollution, reducing waste streams, increasing sales of products used for green industries, and many others.

3M publishes a Sustainability Report detailing how the company is achieving its sustainability goals and meeting established targets. 

In research published in Nature on Wednesday, scientists reveal the discovery that plants and soil can take up to two years to recover from heat waves, greatly reducing their carbon uptake.

The scientists carved out miniature ecosystems in chambers about eight feet by four feet with their plant communities and soil intact, in such a way that light, darkness, temperature and rainfall could be carefully controlled and levels of CO2 monitored.

They based the experiment on data from 150 years of weather history at the site, to duplicate heat-wave years, when temperatures had been between two and seven degrees hotter, but without drought.

Over the next four years, two of the four plots were exposed to a sudden rise in temperature during the second year of the experiment, a hike of almost eight degrees Fahrenheit. The other two were the control group, and programmed to reproduce the weather conditions of the original site based on data recorded over the previous seven years.

Arnone's team found that during this anomalously warm year and the year that followed, the two plots in the simulated heat wave conditions sucked up two-thirds less carbon than those that had been exposed to normal temperatures.

This is bad news for us, coming on the heels of related study published last year, one finding that carbon is no longer being stored by soil and the other, finding that the ocean's carbon sink is in decline.

This study reverses earlier findings published in 1999, that warming stimulates carbon storage at the ecosystem level, which formed the basis for international carbon offset projects.

As a result, these findings throw in a new factor for calculating the value of natural sinks, which play a critical role in offsetting carbon emissions. This is critical information, as this kind of calculation is used in deciding whether to fund forestry projects for use as carbon offsets rather than new clean energy projects such as wind farms.  

Photo by Flickr user Texas Finn

Via Terra Daily

GP Plastics Corporation manufactures polyethylene , or Poly Green oxo-biodegradable plastics bags, as an eco-conscious substitute for common plastic bags. Polyethylene is a type of plastic, which is strong enough to be used in a bullet-proof vest and is relatively new to the market.

GP Plastics CEO Mike Skinner notes that, “The domestic newspaper industry uses six to seven billion bags per year. GP manufactures more than one-half of those bags and is working to convert all of them to our PolyGreen product.”

Production of plastic bags is known for requiring large amounts of energy, eventually resulting in a higher demand for power. And unless the manufacturing plant is powered by renewables, fossil fuels will be used, adding to air pollution and climate change. Plastic bags also are rarely recycled, instead disposed of in a landfill adding to waste streams.

Traditional plastic bags may take anywhere from 500 to 1,000 years to biodegrade in landfills. But, the Poly Green bags will degrade with the help of oxygen, solar radiation and heat in a few months (or up to three years, depending on the amount of air exposure the bags receive). After being exposed to air, the polyethylene particles degrade into molecules small enough to be digested by landfill bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms. What remains after then two degradation processes are simply natural elements: water, carbon dioxide, degraded biological materials, biomass, left behind by bacteria, fungi and microorganisms.

To increase their eco-friendliness, GP designed these bags to be recyclable via regular plastic standards, should eco-minded consumers wish to do so. Ink used on the bags, presumably for advertisements, will be water-soluble making the Poly Green bag a super green product.

Similar common plastic bags are also used in other industries such as for pet and commercial food products. For example, similar plastics are used for pet waste clean-up. By converting pet and food plastic bags to biodegradable bags, America could form a healthier relationship with the environment and generate a whole new spin-off industry. 

The newspaper will begin delivering oxo-biodegradable bags to subscribers' homes over the course of the next few weeks.

Capping a building with a white roof -- a rooftop painted or built with high light-reflecting capacities -- can turn a building eco-friendly and provide many environmental benefits.

White roofs do not absorb solar radiation, resulting in a building that does not have to work hard at cooling. This benefit also assists in preventing pollution that can be formed by reflective surfaces (such as roofs) radiating heat into the lower atmosphere and mixing with pollutants and chemicals to create smog.

Another benefit of white roofs: a decrease in the urban heat-island effect often felt by cities where numerous non-reflective, standard roofs radiate heat into the immediate atmosphere and where that heated air can become trapped by the surrounding buildings.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates that replacing a standard house roof with a white roof 1,000 square feet in size would spare the environment approximately 10 metric tons of carbon dioxide. Larger buildings could see even greater benefits. For its part, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has established a Cool Roofs program designed to encourage developers to install white roofs for the benefit of the environment and to increase financial benefits to building owners through energy savings.

Here’s one for the “not sure if it’s good news or- bad” file: despite predictions of a massive melt-off, the annual retreat of arctic sea ice failed to set a new record for smallest recorded ice sheet surface area this summer. 

This is good news because it limits the impact smaller ice sheets have on arctic wildlife, and because the icy white cap blasts a significant amount of solar energy back out into space. The dark sea water melting ice reveals absorbs a tremendous amount of this energy, making for a nasty positive feedback cycle of warming-melting-more warming.  It also lessens the argument that climate change causes economic good, in this case by limiting the viability of a Northwest Passage shipping route. 

It’s also bad news, though, as the handful of accredited climate change deniers still out there can seize upon the data as further evidence that this global warming thing is entirely non-human-caused, and has nothing to do with global carbon dioxide levels, which continue to rise. Any news—even good news—that decreases the urgency with which humanity pursues a reduced carbon future can be a very unfortunate thing. 

While I’m not too psyched about national income tax rates that support it, the Norse approach to protecting global environments is seriously impressive. First, the Norwegians set the ambitious goal of carbon neutrality by 2030; today, they sink a cool billion (US dollars) into Brazil’s Amazon protection fund.

The fund isn’t simply your run-of-the-mill, save-the-rainforest operation. It aims to foster sustainable development in the Amazon region, allowing impoverished locals to capitalize on the tremendous resource they live in and around. More money flowing into the region means more reliable protection against destructive, unauthorized use, and greater incentives to pursue and develop clean, sustainable operations. 

Aside from protecting the tremendous biodiversity of the region, the fund will also lessen emissions due to deforestation, which are most developing nations’ greatest contribution to global warming. If successful, the Amazon fund could set a model for protection of forest resources worldwide. 

While non-destruction pacts are beginning to protect swaths of unexploited forests in some of the poorest and most war-torn regions of the world, without some source of regional economic development, the threat of deforestation for mere subsistence remains.

Santa Ana-based startup QuantumSphere Inc said this week it has filed for a patent on a technology that can increase the capacity of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries as much as fivefold.  Laptops could operate up to 12 hours on a single charge rather than the few hours a charge lasts now. 

Beyond batteries, QuantumSphere's work has potential application in other renewable energy production or storage technologies, such as hydrogen electrolysis and solar technologies. The company recently began producing a high purity copper- indium- gallium alloy for application in low-cost thin film solar cell production.

The company's focus is on making nano metals for green-energy applications. QuantumSphere has manufactured a number of metal and metal alloy nanoparticles including iron, silver, copper, nickel, cobalt and manganese.

Nano metals present an opportunity to provide more energy and power density in zinc-air and lithium ion batteries when used as catalysts. Catalyst materials are the main ingredients facilitating chemical reactions within the battery and play a key role in setting the energy and power densities of these devices.

This video shows evidence of the much greater catalytic activity in nano aluminum compared with inert aluminum, which would not catch light at all. In this case you would need a lot less nano material than the micron-sized particles to do the same work.

QuantumSphere's products are achieving phenomenal results. Recently the company published data showing that using its nano materials as the catalyst in the zinc air battery resulted in a 320% increase in power density. Compared to the metal particles used as catalysts today, nano-scale materials have 2000% greater surface area, which greatly increases reactivity, catalysis, energy density and power density. As a result, much more power can be stored in a lithium ion battery without the potential for the overheating and runaway chemical reactions plaguing this technology today.

GM, which says it would like to see a battery with three times the capacity of current batteries, and today is hunting for a talented expert on staff, surely will find this news encouraging.

Via Edmunds' Green Car Advisor

Google has filed a patent for a rather brilliant idea: a water-based data center, described as follows:

"A system that includes a floating platform-mounted computer data center comprising a plurality of computing units, a sea-based electrical generator in electrical connection with the plurality of computing units, and one or more sea-water cooling units for providing cooling to the plurality of units."

The platforms, to be positioned between three to seven miles offshore in water ranging from 50 feet to 250 feet deep, are designed to use renewable power created by Pelamis wave energy converters connected to a floating platform holding Google's data centers. Standard shipping containers would house racks of computers that could be transported by truck, placed onto a boat, and transferred to the floating center by crane.

Each joint of the floating Pelamis unit has a 2.25 megawatt capacity, and each data center would have enough to supply 40 megawatts. Google also has plans to use direct current electricity to run DC-capable computers, so no energy would be lost in transmission.

In addition, pipes would circulate cold deep seawater throughout to cool all the hardware inside the containers, preventing overheating.

The ocean would thus supply the two critical needs of data centers: cooling and power. Not to mention that the ocean is a vast rent-free space, enabling data centers to be as large as 100,000 square feet without requiring costly real estate.

Google mentions an additional important advantage of basing data centers on the open seas: when critical infrastructure has been taken out, for instance by earthquakes or hurricanes, the data centers could be towed back in close to land to re-establish local computing power and telecommunications.

Related stories:
Scientist To Tap River Currents
Next, Google Brings Cheap Energy From The Earth

Via Good Clean Tech

Senator Barack Obama's energy plan includes zero-energy building codes nationwide for all new buildings by 2030. For such a standard, buildings must not use more energy than than they produce. California has already legislated a zero-energy building requirement, slated to begin by 2020.

For architects familiar with meeting design requirements for energy efficiency, such as California's Title 24, the next step should not prove difficult to achieve.

Legislated building-efficiency improvements have created incentives to go the extra mile, because higher initial costs are offset by future energy savings. Even now, LEED-certified buildings generate 3.5 percent higher occupancy rates and 3 percent higher rental rates; they have a 6.6 percent improved return on investment. Zero-energy buildings would presumably do even better: Their energy costs are not just reduced, they're eliminated -- in the long run.

Innovative concepts such as biomimicry, new urbanism, permaculture, cradle-to-cradle, lifecycle analysis and ecological design mark the field of sustainable design. It's changing how we think about our relationships with nature and the built environment.

The solutions are many: solar panels that work in place of traditional roofing, micro wind turbines and ground heat pumps. When you build from scratch, excavation for the  earthquake-proof foundations some building codes already require takes you deep enough to install a heat pump.

This new, more stringent efficiency requirement will not meet the same resistance from architects that we've seen from the auto industry for fuel-efficient designs. Architects and designers can brush up on new design requirements to incorporate sustainable, zero-energy products into each building at the start of a project -- they don't have to retool entire factories to switch production lines.

Legislating requirements to increase building efficiency may be a more productive avenue for reducing carbon emissions than pushing on vehicle-emission requirements. The building design field is driven by individual architects who -- like designers in other industries -- thrive on innovation and actively seek out solutions to problems. Ecological concerns are already fostering an industrial revolution in sustainable design and green building.

This nation can excel at the technological and economic challenge of preventing artificial climate change. The right politician can recast this task in practical and optimistic terms.

Rolf Disch's solar village: Solarsiedlung

Mayor, Karl Dean established the Green Ribbon Committee on Environmental Sustainability to ensure Nashville is a “livable city with clean air, clean water, open spaces, transportation infrastructure and an energy use profile necessary to provide a prosperous community for current and future generations.”

To do so, the city is improving energy efficiency throughout current and future buildings, and using eco products to create greener buildings. A vegetated roof using common Sedum species, a succulent plant that is drought-tolerant, is currently underway at the Shelby Bottoms Nature Center. Nashville’s historic courthouse also contains a green roof atop the building’s parking structure. The roofs will provide energy savings as they'll insulate the buildings from solar radiation. The vegetation will also absorb rainwater, saving Nashville’s storm water collection system from energy intensive treatment processing.

At Bells Bend Outdoor Center, another Nashville nature center, photovoltaic cells on the center’s rooftop generate power, which will be sold back to the local electricity supplier. The center is expected to generate 4,400 kilowatt hours and is the first public facility that will sell back to Nashville’s electric power company, Nashville Electric Service (NES). Solar power will prevent the park from consuming electricity generated by fossil fuels that contribute to climate change emissions.

The Beaman Park building will use a geothermal heat pump to provide heating and cooling capabilities for the building. The pump generates heat during the winter from the earth’s thermal energy and then transfers the heat in the summer. This feature also reduces the need to rely on electricity generated by fossil fuels and saves greenhouse gas emissions.

Future improvements in Nashville include pervious pavement that will allow water to filtrate through the pavement and capture some of the storm water’s pollutant particles as opposed to allowing the polluted water to wash into creeks, more green roofs around town, LEED-rated buildings, and buildings that incorporate eco design such as passive solar lighting. Additionally, the Parks Department will incorporate low-impact development design features, energy efficient appliances, recycled building materials, and other LEED best practices into their future facilities. These features will work to limit pollution, energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and provide green, open space for Nashville.

Solar panels and wind turbines will provide the homes of Les Grande’ur Country Club with clean electricity. Solar and wind energy will generate 400 to 500 kilowatt hours on a monthly basis for the townhomes and 300 kilowatt hours monthly for apartment homes, contributing approximately to  90 percent of each home's electricity needs.

Additionally, the homes have been designed to save energy and increase energy efficiency. Highlights include walls insulated with foam reducing the need for air conditioning, solar water heaters, back-up batteries for each home, solar lighting within the development’s outdoor areas, and of course, great views of the island (in keeping with the French translation, “great view”).

The development consists of five townhouses and four apartment buildings equipped with two or three bedrooms units. The site is primed for wind and solar energy generation and is located in Patrick Heights, a community in the Red Hills of St. Andrew. The project is scheduled for completion in September, 2009 and some townhomes have already been purchased.

Many people are familiar with the figures on US share of world oil consumption versus world oil production: the US produces a mere three percent, but consumes 25 percent of world oil supplies.

However, there is an even more startling figure: Since 2005, the share of world oil resources owned by the various national oil companies (companies fully or in the majority owned by a national government)  has grown by a healthy 15 percent, according to figures from the International Monetary Fund.

Control by independent oil companies (such as ExxonMobil, BP Amoco, or Royal Dutch/Shell) of the world's oil has plummeted from well over 50 percent 30 years ago down to a mere seven percent of the world's oil resource base. Nationally owned companies now control the lion's share of world oil supplies, and they also are increasingly investing outside their national borders.

Due to their growing dominance over global reserves, the importance of nationally owned companies relative to international oil companies has risen dramatically in recent years.

Proven reserves are the main asset of an oil company, and to be counted in asset valuation, they only need leases: oil companies don't have to actually drill on them to boost their bottom line on paper.

Perhaps opening up new oil leases is more about being able to increase profits to compete with much larger entities in the new world oil market than about creating a vast new gushing hose of oil to supply the American consumer.

As I watched one of the Sunday morning political shows, a pattern emerged. No, it wasn't the series of rhetorical bickerings by Democrats and Republicans (nothing new about THAT pattern). It was the commercial breaks, which were chock full of 'green' advertisements. A single commercial break went as follows: IBM, Vestas, Cialis (not green), T. Boone Pickens. The IBM ad was for its new BladeCenters that are supposed to be so green as to trigger a spawning of adorable Disney-esque woodland creatures.

According to the IBM website, the new servers can save 10-30% on energy costs. While this certainly represents a cost reduction, I doubt that news would be enough to get Thumper all wound up. Greening IT requires addressing a whole set of issues, from efficiency to e-waste to using less toxic materials and manufacturing processes.

IBM hasn't ignored these problems completely. Last year, the company made much ado about diverting 100 million pounds of e-waste from landfills. And its website provides decent information on greening data centers.

With huge server farms popping up like Wal-Marts and 20-50 million tons of e-waste being created globally each year, voluntary corporate greening measures won't cut it. In 2007, the U.S. generated 2.25 million tons of e-waste, most of which went to landfills

Thankfully, some action is being taken. At least 18 states have considered electronic waste legislation this year and four states have passed extensive laws to address it, with seven other states making some kind of progress on the issue. Additionally, a bill introduced in the House of Representatives aims to ban the export of e-waste to developing countries.

In the IBM spot, upon seeing the cornucopia of animated fauna, an executive asks IT Guy something like: "this will make us green?." IT Guy responds: "very green." If I were IT Guy, I would have said, "Not really, but it might make a good commercial," after which I would be promptly fired, escorted out by a mob of angry woodland creatures.

On Friday, General Motors delivered a fuel-cell-driven Chevy Equinox to the Environmental Protection Agency. The effort is part of GM's Project Driveway program to market test fuel-cell vehicles. EPA will use the vehicles for government business in Washington, DC, with on-board electronics recording performance data. So far, GM has 100 of the hydrogenated Equinoxes on the streets.

EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson cleverly expressed his support for the addition to his fleet, saying, "EPA is turning the key on an engine of change, by turning fleet emissions from CO2 to H2O." EPA is leasing the vehicle for six months, with funding provided by the Department of Energy. The vehicle is expected to have a driving life of 50,000 miles can travel about 150 miles on a fill up.

The barriers to mass production of fuel-cell vehicles are well known. Most estimates put the development of a hydrogen vehicle at about $1 - $2 million, much of that due to the fact that fuel cells have more platinum than Jay-Z. Furthermore, making hydrogen through electrolysis of water is energy intensive and no infrastructure exists to distribute it once it's cracked. Even the auto companies admit that hydro-cars won't be ready for the mass market until 2025.

To me, electric vehicles seem so much more practical. The electricity grid -- while still dirty -- is an always-on, ubiquitous distribution network, while battery technology is getting better and cheaper all the time.

With government support, more research, and scale, a fuel-cell car will undoubtedly become cheaper. However, I always end up asking the question, "Why are we trying to re-invent the battery?"

Wouldn't you think that surely someone should have come up with a solar air conditioner by now? Someone has. 

GreenCore Air has an air conditioning unit powered by a single 170-watt solar panel capable of cooling a 600-square-foot room. 

It already runs on DC power, so there's no need for users to put an AC inverter between the solar panel and the air conditioner, sparing any power loss while converting AC to DC.

The only AC power required goes to recharging the batteries when the sun goes down. But the more solar panels and/or batteries added to the system, the less AC power required for battery charging.

The solar panels charge the batteries and the air conditioner runs off the power stored in the batteries. Depending on outdoor temperature, thermostat setting, global position and season, the system will run for four to eight hours before automatically switching to allow the batteries to charge from standard AC grid power.

When the sun is not out the unit runs on the battery bank, which is integrated within the unit. The power required to charge the batteries is far less than the power required to run a conventional air conditioner.

A full charge is complete in about three hours, and it keeps working during the charging process. Prices start at $5,700, depending upon the model. The mobile unit comes standard with a solar panel top lid of the box, but you can add more. The US Navy has picked up a few for its more off-grid locations.

GreenCore Air says you could run this off a wind turbine too, but I imagine that if you have enough wind, you probably don't have the problem that this product solves.

Photo by Flickr user yezi9713

Worldwide, airlines are in serious trouble due to fuel costs. Jet fuel now accounts for 36 percent of the industry's costs, up from 13 percent just six years ago, and could account for 40 percent of the airlines' costs next year. No one is suggesting that the industry is going to go bust just yet, but there is a feeling that things could get much worse before they get better.

While European airlines project seven-fold profit declines to just $300 million, they get off relatively easily, since the Euro is strong and they have a strong presence in emerging markets like China and India.

US airlines however, are projecting $5 billion in losses, and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicts the industry will lose more than $4 billion next year. "The negative impact of the industry crisis is universal," says Giovanni Bisignani, head of the IATA, which represents 94 percent of the world's airlines.

But Boeing CEO Jim McNerney believes that the occasional bout of bloodletting accelerates the introduction of new technology, which Boeing is doing. "There are two cross-currents," he says."There are the economic difficulties presented by high fuel prices. But the current cutting the other way is: you really do need new technology to lower your fuel consumption by between 20 percent and 30 percent."

Funny that he should mention 20 percent. I seem to remember that Boeing's new low carbon 787 Dreamliner was designed to cut fuel use by that amount.

Photo by Flickr user Henrique Vicente
From Wired Autopia

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China is considering using deep ocean water to air-condition Hong Kong high-rise office buildings -- which are virtually man-made "cliffs" right by the ocean -- by utilizing the differential between cold ocean depths and warm surface temperatures circulating deep ocean water through a district wide system of pipes.

The technique can be applied using lakes and rivers, instead of ocean water, as long as the water source is cold enough, and even may be suitable for communities, universities, hospitals or hotel resorts.

Projects underway in Singapore, Gibraltar, Stockholm and Honolulu are using deep, cold ocean water to cool large building complexes and downtown areas.

Cornell University has a pilot project underway utilizing lake water for its cold-water source. Pumps draw cold water from a nearby Lake Cayuga. The water is pumped to a heat exchanger at the shore where the campus and a school share a cooling loop, and the warm water from the buildings flows down to push cool water up to the campus. The system is both elegant and cost effective. Enwave also uses lake water, rather than sea water to cool downtown Toronto. Its interactive diagram shows you very clearly how the deep-water cooling works using the icy-cold water of Lake Ontario as its source of naturally chilled deep lake water.

As it gets colder, the density of water increases, causing it to sink to the bottom. Even in warmer weather, while the surface water warms up, but it remains at the surface because it's not dense enough to sink. No matter how hot the summer, the water at the bottom remains very cold.

We could meet our need for a livable temperature range renewably, because historically we built so many cities next to water, for the convenience of trade and transportation.