It’s always a hassle when a big partner decides to skip town on a project, especially one like the London Array – Britain’s plan for the world’s largest offshore wind farm. Luckily, the two other partners involved in the project recognized the importance of it and dug through their couch cushions for the change to buy Shell’s 33% stake in the project.
We don’t know how much it took to buy 33% of a 1 GW project, but it is probably a whole lot. E.ON and Dong Energy are now 50-50 partners and say that the project is still on track to finish phase 1 of development. We’ll know if that’s true by the end of 2012. At any rate, it’s great to hear that massive wind farms are important enough to some investors to see them through to fruition.
San Jose has been taking leaps and bounds to lead the country in sustainable living. They’re making significant progress by partnering up with Coulomb Technologies to test EV charging stations around the city. The 110-volt outlets can be installed on poles like streetlights in various public places so city drivers can charge up conveniently.
With the growing popularity of EVs as viable options to get around town, Coulomb expects that there will need to be two charging stations per car to ensure the proper infrastructure is created to manage the uptake in EV use. The extra charging stations stem from the fact that there is a national average of one residential garage for every 5 vehicles registered in the US, so vehicles without garages need a place to juice up, as well as vehicles that are part of car sharing programs.
An important element of charging stations is utility grid management – Coulomb also has that in the bag with their management technology, making the start-up company a sort of one-stop shop for EV charging infrastructure. San Jose, a city that loves its technology, will be able to take advantage of Coulomb’s wireless communication capabilities for charging stations, management of mesh networks to authenticate users, and management of energy flow and metering. The folks involved in using and working with the stations could access GPS-lined data online for super easy info linkage.
Should San Jose give them a thumbs up, Coulomb’s talks with other CA cities, as well as cities in Texas, Colorado, Florida and New York could prove lucrative. Other cities are also recognizing the importance of gearing up to host EVs and hybrids as consumers purchase more and more. It is simply a short matter of time before charging stations, including those using renewable energy like those undergoing testing in Japan, will be widely available – good news for all EV users.
We all know we have the power to make the world a bit greener – and many feel that includes messing with DNA for environmental improvements, or just better efficiency for our gadgets. Now there’s new hope that DNA could play a major role in making computers run with little or no external power.
Researchers at the University of Toyama say they have created the world’s first stable artificial DNA molecules, made from mainly artificial bits to resemble their natural counterparts. Their findings were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society yesterday. Scientists from all over the world have been trying to do this for the promise of using artificial DNA to create biotechnology materials, including powerful DNA computers.
As Ruchi Mallya, an analyst on the use of technology in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology with Datamonitor, explains, such computers are constructed using DNA as software and enzymes as hardware, rather than traditional silicon-based components. This could then hopefully be the start of a new kind of external biological information storage system.
DNA molecules are similar to computer hard drives: they save information about an individual’s genes, but they have one advantage in that they have the potential to perform calculations faster than any man-made computers. The computer on which you’re reading this article is using nowhere near as many simultaneous actions as your DNA molecules required to make reading this article possible.
“In addition, unlike today's PCs, DNA computers require minimal or no external power sources as they run on internal energy produced during cellular reactions,” says Mallya. “There is a huge amount of potential for a computer that does not need to be plugged in the implications this has for laptops and true mobility are endless.”
The goal is to one day integrate DNA into a computer chip to create a biochip. That will make standard computers faster and more energy efficient. “DNA computers could potentially be the future of green IT,” she says. Research team leader Masahiko Inouye says the findings could lead to improvements in gene therapy, futuristic nano-sized computers and other high-tech advances. Already DNA has been harnessed to create simple electronic circuits but the University of Toyama scientists have taken it one step further by stitching together four entirely new artificial DNA.
Mallya says there are still years of research ahead, but she anticipates that companies such as Apple, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel and Sun Microsystems might begin investing in research that emphasizes artificial DNA and its possible applications, shaking a potential Pandora’s Box next to their ears.
The Amazônia-1 is keeping an eye on deforestation in the Brazilian forests and urban expansion around the world. Brazil announced it will launch the satellite in 2011 and will use a high-resolution camera to capture potentially illegal activity in forests, particularly in the Amazon and Congo rainforests.
Going Google Earth with the idea, the satellite will orbit the earth 14 times a day at a distance of 400 miles collecting images from several countries. Each camera can pick up images showing 10 meters of actual terrain in each pixel on the photo – that’s some pretty detailed imagery.
Tyrson Villela, director for satellites and applications at the Brazilian told SciDev.net that the data will be freely available to research centers in Brazil and other countries. “Having access to this information will help other tropical countries to fight their environment issues,” says Villela. Besides making environmental observations and natural resources management, the Amazônia-1 will also map out remote areas, and conduct coastal and disaster monitoring.
While this technology and the purpose of its use are both pretty cool, they’re not by any means unique or break-through. Especially if the satellite isn’t launching for another three years. The bottom line seems to be that Brazil wants to step up with technology. But if it keeps illegal deforestation in check, then go for it.
In general, online businesses like to completely surprise their users when introducing a new look. They want it to be a big secret and then BANG! It's different! And everyone's a bit disoriented, and lots of people are upset because they don't like change, or it's less functional, or just plain ugly.
So I thought, y'know...why don't I just ask?
So, here you have it, give this a click and see the mockup of what we're thinking about for ecogeek 3.0 (yes, what you're looking at is not our first design...but we have had it for almost two years now.)
This is all very preliminary, but we are probably going to be slapping a new skin on this girl before long. Any suggestions you have, I would love to read them in the comments. And for those of you who want a simpler task, just use the following poll.
I don't spend a lot of time thinking about celebrities. I'm generally more interested in professors at MIT than actors in Hollywood. But every once in a while, our friends at Ecorazzi will post something that catches my eye.
Apparently Johnny Depp bought an island for around $3,000,000 a while back. And, since there aren't exactly power lines running to the tiny island, he had to figure out how to power his (ridiculously posh) home. For the green-minded Depp, diesel generators just weren't an option.
So he turned to Mike Strizki to help him build a system that would produce enough power to quench his celebrity-born thirst for decadence while not throwing off massive amounts of greenhouse gas. The result is a solar system that stores excess energy as hydrogen for use at night, or during cloudy times of day (not too common in the Bahamas, but still.)
The system, to me, seems vastly inefficient. Hydrogen gas is terrible at storing energy in a small space unless it can be compressed a great deal. But Strizki's system uses propane tanks to keep costs low. The result is that 10 thousand-gallon propane tanks are needed to store enough hydrogen to get the island through the night. You can see a video of his less exotic system (in New Jersey) here.
Power storage for renewable systems is a huge deal. But this strikes me as a rather inelegant solution. But a high pressure tank would be costly, and of course require an energy-hungry compressor. So maybe Depp's system is the best we're going to get.
In any case, it's hard to call any of this green when the excesses of owning your own island are so obvious. But I suppose it's better than complete disregard for the environment..
Solar Hydrogen Energy Corporation (SHEC) Labs has launched themselves into first place for the world’s most efficient solar thermal technology developed so far. They’ve created a solar concentrator and receiver that can concentrate solar energy up to 5,000 times the usual intensity of sunlight hitting the earth, making the sunlight nearly as hot as the surface from which it arrives. The 11,000° F heat can melt metal instantly if the concentrated sunlight is focused on it. This tops MITs solar concentration project that can concentrate light to 1,000 times its intensity, but this system uses cheap, widely available materials.
SHEC Labs uses one-foot-square parabolic mirrors held in a frame. A cylindrical tube with an aperture is painted with a highly reflective coating and acts as a solar receiver. Sunlight entering the aperture bounces around, with 95% of the energy eventually being absorbed by the tube.
If built at commercial scale SHEC Labs believes they can reach concentrations of 11,000 to 16,000 times the intensity of the sun’s light. With this kind of solar thermal power generated, the applications are widespread – from heating to water distillation, to converting methane from landfills into hydrogen and syngas, as well as hythane to run vehicles that use natural gas. While the technology has been a long time coming, it is getting utilized pretty quickly – a landfill in Texans is already implementing the system and will be able to fuel 5,000 vehicles on its fleet per year. Additionally, SHEC has cinched a deal to generate 3 GW to be divided among 6 solar farms beginning overseas this year. While the system is costly to get up and running, pay back is expected in 5 to 15 years – pretty darn quick, relatively speaking.
Considering the growing interest in solar thermal projects, from the DOE investing $60 million on developing solar thermal technologies to Ausra opening a new factory to produce parts for their solar thermal projects, it seems likely that this new breakthrough has guns and will travel.
We’ve been waiting around for awhile for a laptop that uses methanol fuel cells. Finally, PolyFuel has finished up a working prototype for a fuel cell-powered laptop, the Lenovo T40 ThinkPad. The laptop runs on direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), and each methanol cartridge provides power for about 10 hours of use. There are some great features to this, and some not so great features.
First off, the battery prototype is quite a bit lighter than the OEM battery the Lenovo uses, which is great, but it is larger, which is not so great. It offers three times the battery life than the current battery, yet 10 hours per charge doesn’t seem like a whole lot of use time. I don’t think I’d enjoy refilling the thing every day, sometimes twice a day. I’m hoping they’ll be able to squeeze a few more hours out of each charge before putting it on the market. Researchers believe that if they can get the fuel cell to operate at 100% capacity, they will be able to get 10 times the power of a comparable Li-Ion battery. That would be pretty stunning. MIT is already on the ball with improving efficiency of DMFCs.
Another great feature is that the fuel cell can be made from biodegradable or recyclable materials – a big plus. And of course the fact that the fuel itself is renewable is a significant feature. But just where to buy and how much methanol cartridges will cost is still going to play a big role in the laptop’s marketability. PolyFuel believes the laptop could be on the market in 2 to 3 years, so they have a little while to figure these details out.
DMFCs are an emerging technology for smaller devices, and we’re likely to see a whole slew of handheld gadgets and smaller computers start to utilize the technology on a larger scale in just a couple years, with wider availability to consumers shortly after that.
While Nissan is working on more eco-friendly cars, it isn’t exactly in the lead. Yet, Nissan has found that solar power can make an impact on cars that aren’t necessarily labeled as eco-friendly, aren’t flex-fuel, aren’t even marketed as solar powered. And more importantly, solar power going into cars can make an impact on the company’s bottom line well after the cars leave the manufacturing plant.
Cars waiting to be purchased can sit in lots for a long, long time. The effect of sitting out in all sorts of weather conditions for a month or two can mean batteries lose their charge – not a good thing for a brand new car going to an excited customer. Manufacturers need to replace these discharged batteries, and that adds up to a whole lot of money when we factor in the sheer number of vehicles on lots around the world, especially for a large car maker like Nissan.
To fix the problem and keep batteries from needing to be replaced, Nissan has partnered with ICP Solar Technologies Inc who will provide OEM solar chargers that suction to dash boards of waiting cars. The trickle charge from the solar power unit keeps batteries from being discharged and therefore keeps them from needing replacement. This has worked for Nissan Europe and the program is being extended to Nissan North America. ICP Solar Technologies Inc created a similar deal with Volkswagen in 2006, so apparently it is a proven technique.
The solar devices can be taken out of a sold car and put into a new arrival. Nissan will keep millions in their pockets now that they don’t have to swap out old, yet hardly used batteries, and keeping batteries useful longer takes a bit of the load off Mother Earth, too.
Estonia is putting its green face forward with a new sustainable city to be built next to its capital city of Tallinn. Architects from Schmidt Hammer Lassen have won a design competition for their Ecobay design, a realistic concept city that is sustainable and eco-friendly.
The city will be located on the Paliassaare peninsula overlooking the Baltic Sea, and will have everything from wind farms, to geothermal heating, to hydro electricity to run its schools, houses, shops and businesses. Sustaibable elements have been drawn into the city's structure; for example, it is designed to minimize the need for transportation, and building layouts take into account the harsh wind conditions and there are varying heights of structures so that solar and wind power are maximized.
We’ve seen a lot of sustainable concept cities pop up – many of them destined to stay concepts while others are starting to pan out – but this one has some serious potential to be all it’s drawn up to be. The new Ecobay will be built over the next 15 to 20 years, and will be home to about 6,000 people on the 481,000 square meters of space.
One of the biggest opportunities to put your best foot forward as a new clean tech start-up is to be a finalist in the California Clean Tech Open. The business plan competition is a spring board into the attention needed to generate funding for a project to get it off the ground. Past finalists have been able to rustle up over $70 million in VC funding over the last two years. And while statistics show that 90% of new businesses fail in their first year, a huge 84% of CCTO alumni are still viable businesses, proving the significant weight the competition holds. There are six categories a finalist can call under – Air, Water & Waste; Energy Efficiency’ GreenBuilding; Renewables; Smart Power; and Transportation. All categories are broad enough to catch the incredible creativity of entrants. Over 100 Executive Summaries were submitted, but only 44 made the cut. And the nominees are:
Air, Water & Waste category – Prize Co-Sponsor Grundfos
Clean Coal Inc.: “Removes contaminants from coal”
Over the Moon Diapers: “High performance reusable diapers and service network”
Porifera: “Carbon nanotube membrane for reverse osmosis desalination”
PURE-T: “Salt free water softener using nanobeads”
Purite: “Zero-energy chemical-free whole house water filtration”
SequesCO: “Microbial CO2 capture and conversion to biofuel”
Waste Water Works (WWW): “Microbial wastewater treatment also generates electricity”
Energy Efficiency category – Prize Sponsors PG&E, SCE and SDG&E:
Atomic Precision Systems Inc.: “New semiconductor process for ultra-cheap LED lighting”
Enovative Group: “Smart pump for hot water circulation”
NexChem: “Energy-saving process improvement for zinc galvanizing”
Transoptic: “Solar energy assistance for conventional water heaters”
Viridis Earth: “Domestic HVAC retrofit to improve efficiency”
WicKool: “Energy efficient water recovery for existing rooftop air conditioning”
GreenBuilding category:
BottleStone: “Ceramic stone countertops include 80% recycled glass”
en-vis-age: “Green, modular and customizable buildings”
Green Design Systems: “Straw wall building panels”
GreenHomeAnswers.com: “Home improvement website for green products and services”
GroundSource: “Residential geothermal system with installation services”
ISTN: “Eco-friendly building insulation”
Parco Homes: “Manufactured green (zero net energy) home kits”
Solar Red: “Low cost rooftop PV installation system and components”
Team Wawa: “Water-conserving shower system”
Renewables category – Prize Sponsors Google, PG&E, and SCE:
Covalent Solar: “Organic thin film solar concentrators”
Focal Point Energy: “Solar thermal water heater for industrial processes”
ElectronVault, Inc.: “More efficient traction battery for hybrids”
Enhanced Vehicle Acoustics: “Flexible engine sound generator for quiet cars”
FuelMotion: “Series hybrid conversions for the developing world”
Goose Networks: “Hosted dynamic scheduler for carpools/vanpools”
Philo Fuel: “GPS-based audiovisual cues to help drivers optimize fuel efficiency”
The finalists compete for a "Start-Up in a Box" prize package worth $100,000. The package provides essentials that help the projects move from concept to full-blown business – no small beans! We’ll find out the winners on November 6, 2008. Stay tuned.
Driving less is the best way to prevent having a car accident. When you're on the road less, you're just less likely to crash your car (or have someone crash into you.) So your insurance company has a vested interest in making you pay more if you drive a lot.
Unfortunately, this one factor, the most important in determining the likelihood of having an accident, is very difficult for insurance companies to gauge. They can't come by and check everyone's odometer. So, as it stands, insurance companies don't vary their premiums very much because they can't trust people to tell them how much they do or don't drive.
But that may now change. GM drivers can now opt-in to a program that sends their mileage statistics to GMAC. And if the yearly mileage is under 15,000, GMAC will reduce their rates up to 54%.
It's part of GM's OnStar program. And, if it sounds like a possible violation of privacy to you, it kinda is. That's why you have to choose to join the program. Still, it's a little creepy...basically paying you for personal information about your driving habits. Not that insurance companies haven't been delving deep into our privacy since the beginning of time. We'll see how long it is before they start keeping track of where you drive, and whether you speed.
Nonetheless, I like the program, if only because it's a more fair way to insure vehicles. Oh, and because it uses some pretty cool technology to give people one more reason to drive less.
EcoGeek believes in the power of technology. We're optimists...full of hope in a field that was once hopeless. I honestly think we have a chance of feeding 10 billion people in 2050 without completely destroying the planet. It's not going to be easy, but it is possible.
But there are some technological solutions that simply scare my pants off. Geoengineering, the idea that we are smart enough to put the natural systems of the earth under human control, is one of those ideas.
With the possible exception of the human mind, the Earth is the most complex system in the universe. Life ads so many variables to equations that a computer the size of our planet (run by the mice, of course) wouldn't be able to calculate the outcome of a butterfly beating its wings in Mongolia.
It's no secret that we've already begun geoengineering...though, accidentally. Generally, we call this "climate change." And attempting to restore a natural balance is probably one of the most intelligent things we can do as a race.
But to start pouring many tons of calcium hydroxide into the oceans in an attempt to decrease the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is akin to shoving a rod into your brain and hoping you come out the other side a happier person.
You can identify the region of your brain responsible for depression. And you can carefully measure the length of the rod. But once you shove it in there and start wiggling...no one has any idea what's going to happen. And while lobotomizing a patient is bad, irreparably damaging the Earth is what we call the apocalypse.
The local affects on ocean chemistry would certainly be deadly as the pH shot up. But on a large scale, the acidity of the ocean would likely not decrease at all. To change the pH of the entire ocean is not so simple.
In the end, the solar energy needed to create the lime would probably reduce CO2 far more if it were just fed into the grid. Plus, we wouldn't have to worry about accidentally breaking our planet.
Science, technology gadgets and...baby seals. We're in a bit of an eco-mess, but we've got the brains to lick any problem. And that's why EcoGeek.org publishes up to ten stories daily about innovations that are saving the planet.
And if that sounds interesting to you, then congratulations, you're an EcoGeek.
In general, online businesses like to completely surprise their users when introducing a new look. They want it to be a big secret and then BANG! It's different! And everyone's a bit disoriented, and lots of people are upset because they don't like change, or it's less functional, or just plain ugly.
I don't spend a lot of time thinking about celebrities. I'm generally more interested in professors at MIT than actors in Hollywood. But every once in a while, our friends at 
Driving less is the best way to prevent having a car accident. When you're on the road less, you're just less likely to crash your car (or have someone crash into you.) So your insurance company has a vested interest in making you pay more if you drive a lot.
EcoGeek believes in the power of technology. We're optimists...full of hope in a field that was once hopeless. I honestly think we have a chance of feeding 10 billion people in 2050 without completely destroying the planet. It's not going to be easy, but it is possible.
