Solar Power

Clean energy debate gets super snarky with "Coal Cares" site

Clean energy debate gets super snarky with "Coal Cares" site You may have noticed in recent months that the coal industry has purchased a lot of ad time on cable networks. Many of them are running spots that tout coal as a clean and safe energy source that creates jobs. A group called “Coal Kills Kids” (CKK) is calling shenanigans on the dirty industry with their satiric site called “Coal Cares” that targets the world’s biggest coal company.

Visitors to Coal Cares may think that the site was sponsored by Missouri based Peabody Energy, but it was actually designed by CKK, an offshoot of the Yes Men. The group generates great fun by “Impersonating big-time criminals in order to publicly humiliate them. Our targets are leaders and big corporations who put profits ahead of everything else.”

Man-made trees that clean the air! Green technology?

treepods-14 SHIFT Boston,  an environmental municipal incentive, and Influx Studio from Paris are cooperating on a project named Treepods – artificial trees which would remove CO2 from air in their vicinity by using solar power, recycled plastic and kinetic energy from built-in playing devices. Their initiative is to install Tripods throughout Boston, creating an urban canopy.

Supposedly a green technology innovation, Treepods are described as modular man-made trees produced from recycled plastic (polyethylene terephthalate - PET). Using installed photovoltaic panels, they would produce part of the energy needed to strip the surrounding air of carbon dioxide, turning it into clean air with an alkaline resin. When the CO2-saturated resin reacts with water, probably meaning rain, it will release the carbon dioxide for storage.

KB Home proves that solar power isn’t just for treehuggers

KB Home proves that solar power isn’t just for treehuggers Like the rest of the economy, the real estate market hasn’t been healthy for a number of years. Builders have had to lay off workers, brokers aren’t cashing a lot of commission checks, and a lot of new homes remain empty for months. Many are looking to green ideas to set their properties apart from vanilla-type construction and a high number of foreclosures hitting the market. Construction giant KB Home is taking this idea to heart and has plans to build a number of communities where solar panels are installed on every starter home.

Solar energy and seawater to transform desert into oasis

Solar energy and seawater to transform desert into oasis Environmental degradation, such desertification, often occurs due to human activities that convert land to agricultural or industrial uses. But what if engineering know-how is used to turn deserts into oases instead? That is precisely what the Kingdom of Jordan hopes to do in partnership with the Sahara Forest Project. By combining solar energy and seawater greenhouse technologies, Jordan hopes to make the desert bloom.

The Sahara Forest Project is an initiative by British firms Seawater Greenhouse Ltd., Exploration Architecture, and Max Fordham Consulting Engineers, as well as the Norwegian Bellona Foundation. This team recognizes that the complex, interrelated environmental and energy problems need solutions that apply a synergy of technologies. By using sun and seawater to transform unproductive land, the Sahara Forest Project hopes to demonstrate that land can be re-vegetated and provide food, energy, and clean water.

Seriously: a cerium solar reactor turns sunlight into fuel

Seriously: a cerium solar reactor turns sunlight into fuelSolar energy has the potential provide all our power needs. But costs and technological challenges limits the economical utility of solar power. Perhaps the solution is to emulate those ubiquitous but often unnoticed solar energy collectors: plants. A team of researchers recently unveiled a device that, like plants, uses sunlight and a unique catalyst to convert carbon dioxide or water into fuel.

The sun is the ultimate source of energy on the planet. Fossil fuels, biomass, and even wind, derive their origin from sunlight. The earth directly absorbs 3,850,000 exajoules (EJ) of energy from the sun every year. Humans consume around 500 EJ of energy a year, with over 80% provided by fossil fuels. Only capturing a fraction of sunlight could reduce the world’s dependence on fossil fuels.

Toshiba takes on the Kindle with their solar powered e-reader

Toshiba takes on the Kindle with their solar powered e-reader In the crowded e-reader market companies are doing anything they can to set themselves apart from the pack. The iPad has a colorful screen, the Nook has a sharing option with e-books, and the Kindle has an enormous amount of content available from Amazon. Toshiba hopes that solar power and a cheap price will juice up sales for their new e-reader, the Biblio Leaf.

The Biblio Leaf looks a lot like the current crop of e-readers with a six inch E Ink display, the ability to download content via Wi-Fi or 3G, and can hold a lot of books via two gigs of storage. Its plain white exterior hides the fact that it can store an additional 3,000 titles through a SD card slot. Note takers will rejoice in the fact that the e-reader also comes with a stylus for taking notes.

New solar panel device charges Chevy Volt completely in 6 hours

New solar panel device charges Chevy Volt completely in 6 hours The 2011 Chevrolet Volt provides a lot of benefits for drivers who can afford the upfront costs. Benefits like driving 40 miles without using any gas, and long term economic savings. But one challenge each potential customer has to work through before taking the plunge is how to charge it. The biggest economic advantages from the Chevrolet Volt come from its electric-only mode and that means its lithium-ion batteries need regular access to electricity. That in mind, Envision Solar has a solution in the form of single vehicle Solar Socket.

New plant pigment may make solar cells more efficient

New plant pigment may make solar cells more efficientResearchers from the University of Sydney in Australia have discovered a highly efficient form of chlorophyll that could give solar panels the ability to convert more sunlight into energy. Chlorophyll is what allows plants and other photosynthetic organisms to convert the sun's rays into energy. More than half of the light produced by the sun comes in the infrared range of the light spectrum, and the recently discovered molecule, called chlorophyll f, absorbs light in the infrared part of the spectrum. Previously known types of chlorophyll only absorb light in the visible range from blue to red.

A bamboo house powered by solar panels? Now that’s green

A bamboo house powered by solar panels? Now that’s green While many companies are focused on changes to existing processes that create efficiencies translating into energy or resource savings – others are rethinking their initial approach. Consider a house, which traditionally requires logs or precut rectangular boards to build out the frame. Now replace that lumber with hardened bamboo, layer the top of it with solar panels, and you get something that looks like a modern way of living sustainably.

Tonji University Shanghai displayed one such model in the 2010 European Solar Decathlon with hopes of demonstrating how people can live within the means of their home’s own carbon footprint. Traditional Chinese architecture is very apparent in the house, and it’s loaded with some hi-tech gear.

Green ideas hit Hollywood and the 2010 Emmy Awards

Green ideas hit Hollywood and the 2010 Emmy Awards There’s no question that the entertainment industry generates a lot of waste from printing scripts or even shooting on location. After Conan O’Brien walked away from the Tonight Show, NBC gutted his $50 million dollar set that he used for just seven months. Others in Hollywood are actually getting the message about being green which has changed a lot of productions like film Inception as well as tonight’s Emmy Awards.

When you think of the Emmy Awards, you think of the ceremony but not the work done behind the scenes. Blurbs have to be written for the presenters, the venue needs to scrubbed clean, and workers need to grab some lunch. All of that adds up to waste in the form of paper, disposable plates, plastic water bottles, and much more.

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