Obama's green guru calls for white roofs - Telegraph: "Professor Steven Chu, the US Energy Secretary, said the unusual proposal would mean homes in hot countries would save energy and money on air conditioning by deflecting the sun's rays.
More pale surfaces could also slow global warming by reflecting heat into space rather than allowing it to be absorbed by dark surfaces where it is trapped by greenhouse gases and increases temperatures."
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Superconductors - Send Energy Across a Continent, Virtually for Free
How To Send Energy Across a Continent | Newsweek Project Green | Newsweek.com: "How to send electricity across the continent, virtually for free." Using superconductors cooled with liquid nitrogen, underground.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Color-Shifting Cuttlefish Inspire TV Screens: Discovery News
Color-Shifting Cuttlefish Inspire TV Screens: Discovery News: "At rest, with no electrical charge, the screen is clear. As the voltage increases, the poly-2 vinyl expands, becoming thicker and thicker while reflecting ever longer wavelengths of light, starting with blue and finishing with red at 10 volts."
Slow wind, huge turbines
The next big thing in wind: Slow wind, huge turbines | Green Tech - CNET News: "With politicians pushing adoption of renewable energy in the United States and Europe, the last few years have seen a surge in plans for wind farms--both on land and sea. But wind power isn't viable everywhere--and prime coastal spots are often already developed.
So some wind-turbine makers are shifting their focus toward building bigger wind turbines that can harvest the lower-speed winds that are more readily available. This next generation of wind turbines is no small matter: their rotors have a diameter the size of a football field.
In general, wind turbines get more powerful and efficient with taller turbine towers and larger areas swept by the blades, according to the American Wind Energy Association. A turbine's swept area is a key indicator in how much power output potential the turbine has.
'Lower wind-speed turbines certainly open up more land for development,' said Rich Reno, platform leader for General Electric's new 2.5-megawatt wind turbine. 'Larger turbines open up the opportunity to get more megawatts out of a given piece of land.'"
So some wind-turbine makers are shifting their focus toward building bigger wind turbines that can harvest the lower-speed winds that are more readily available. This next generation of wind turbines is no small matter: their rotors have a diameter the size of a football field.
In general, wind turbines get more powerful and efficient with taller turbine towers and larger areas swept by the blades, according to the American Wind Energy Association. A turbine's swept area is a key indicator in how much power output potential the turbine has.
'Lower wind-speed turbines certainly open up more land for development,' said Rich Reno, platform leader for General Electric's new 2.5-megawatt wind turbine. 'Larger turbines open up the opportunity to get more megawatts out of a given piece of land.'"
Built To Last Video - Suburban Sprawl vs. New Urbanism
YouTube - Built To Last
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGJt_YXIoJI
The greatest threat to our planet? Cul de sacs.
Imagine if all of your favorite places were a five minute walk instead of a 20 minute drive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGJt_YXIoJI
The greatest threat to our planet? Cul de sacs.
Imagine if all of your favorite places were a five minute walk instead of a 20 minute drive.
Car-free living: not just for city folk
Car-free living: not just for city folk: "VAUBAN, Germany -- Residents of this upscale community are suburban pioneers, going where few soccer moms or commuting executives have ever gone before: they have given up their cars.
Street parking, driveways and home garages are generally forbidden in this experimental new district on the outskirts of Freiburg, near the French and Swiss borders. Vauban's streets are completely 'car-free' -- except the main thoroughfare, where the tram to downtown Freiburg runs, and a few streets on one edge of the community. Car ownership is allowed, but there are only two places to park -- large garages at the edge of the development, where a car-owner buys a space, for $40,000, along with a home.
As a result, 70 percent of Vauban's families do not own cars, and 57 percent sold a car to move here.
(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/science/earth/12suburb.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp, via Bus Nerd)
Apparently, plans are in the works for something similar in the Bay Area called Quarry Village."
http://www.quarryvillage.org/
Street parking, driveways and home garages are generally forbidden in this experimental new district on the outskirts of Freiburg, near the French and Swiss borders. Vauban's streets are completely 'car-free' -- except the main thoroughfare, where the tram to downtown Freiburg runs, and a few streets on one edge of the community. Car ownership is allowed, but there are only two places to park -- large garages at the edge of the development, where a car-owner buys a space, for $40,000, along with a home.
As a result, 70 percent of Vauban's families do not own cars, and 57 percent sold a car to move here.
(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/science/earth/12suburb.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp, via Bus Nerd)
Apparently, plans are in the works for something similar in the Bay Area called Quarry Village."
http://www.quarryvillage.org/
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Transform Waste Vegetable Oil Into Electricity For Your Restaurant WVO Energy Savings Vegawatt
Transform Waste Vegetable Oil Into Electricity For Your Restaurant WVO Energy Savings Vegawatt: "Vegawatt™, the innovative new cogeneration system for restaurants and food service facilities, uses your waste cooking oil as a readily available source of fuel to generate on-site electricity and hot water, saving your restaurant thousands of dollars as well as providing a clean, renewable source of energy."
Friday, May 8, 2009
Transparent solar cells - Building on flexible solar cells - CNET News
Transparent solar cells image - Photos: Building on flexible solar cells - CNET News: "Plastic solar cell company Konarka has developed a transparent cell which it is producing in limited numbers. The company intends to license the transparent cells for different applications, including integrating them into windows. Window maker Arch is already developing a window with this cell placed between two sheets of glass."
Thursday, May 7, 2009
A new spin on battery technology | Tech News on ZDNet
A new spin on battery technology Tech News on ZDNet: "Charged by the application of a very strong magnetic field, the Magnetic Tunnel Junction (MTJ) contains a set of nano-magnets - zones some 5 nanometers across in a zinc-gallium-arsenic-magnesium matrix - which absorb energy and then release it over time. Although the effect had been predicted, the size and duration of the result was not."
The paper in Nature:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature07879.html
The paper in Nature:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature07879.html
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
10 hot green job industries in 2009 - Going Green- msnbc.com
10 hot green job industries in 2009 - Going Green- msnbc.com
1. Second-generation biofuels are derived from non-food crops such as cornstalks or wheat straw, switchgrass and municipal solid waste.
2. Building retrofitting
3. Geothermal energy
4. Green chemistry
5. Green manufacturing
6. Smart grid
7. Solar energy
8. Sustainable agriculture
9. Sustainable green retailing
10. Wind energy
1. Second-generation biofuels are derived from non-food crops such as cornstalks or wheat straw, switchgrass and municipal solid waste.
2. Building retrofitting
3. Geothermal energy
4. Green chemistry
5. Green manufacturing
6. Smart grid
7. Solar energy
8. Sustainable agriculture
9. Sustainable green retailing
10. Wind energy
LED bulb that produces warm light with quantum dots
Mobile News Network: "An LED lamp that's both very power-efficient and produces a light similar to that of a standard tungsten or halogen bulb.
The LEDs in the lamp shine through a thin layer of 'quantum dots,' a scattering of particles of very small but precisely controlled size. When light hits them, they emit light of a different color, much like the 'phosphor' layer of a fluorescent tube. The magic of quantum dots is that the color they emit can be controlled very accurately by adjusting their size, which means less wasted energy and more pleasing color.
The dots are so small that more than 10,000 of them could be could be lined up over the width of a human hair.
The Quantum Light lamp is made by Nexxus Lighting Inc. of Charlotte, N.C.,"
The LEDs in the lamp shine through a thin layer of 'quantum dots,' a scattering of particles of very small but precisely controlled size. When light hits them, they emit light of a different color, much like the 'phosphor' layer of a fluorescent tube. The magic of quantum dots is that the color they emit can be controlled very accurately by adjusting their size, which means less wasted energy and more pleasing color.
The dots are so small that more than 10,000 of them could be could be lined up over the width of a human hair.
The Quantum Light lamp is made by Nexxus Lighting Inc. of Charlotte, N.C.,"
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