What 164,312 Solar Panels Look Like From the Air December 18, 2011
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in green business.Tags: energy, green, green business
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SmartPlanet is hosting a photo essay about the Long Island Solar Farm, a 32-megawatt power project at Brookhaven Labs. The farm produces enough electricity to provide power for 4,500 homes for a year.
Check out the amazing photos here.
Americans Don’t Have a Clue About How to Save Energy September 24, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in culture, green business.Tags: culture, energy, green
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Ariel Schwartz over at FastCompany has analyzed a study of the energy conservation habits of Americans. The study discovered that most Americans aren’t up to par on their energy saving ideas. For example, 20% of all respondents believed that turning off lights was the best way to save energy. 3.2% believed better appliances meant saving more energy, as well as 2.8% who believed efficient cars meant saving energy. The reason why is because energy conservation isn’t high up on the lists of concerns of most people. Better information delivery would help make people more knowledgeable.
Check out the FastCompany analysis here.
BP Needed an Andon Cord August 12, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in Lean Thinking, workforce.Tags: energy, Lean Thinking, workforce
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According to BP, everyone on the Deepwater Horizon rig had “stop-order authority”, meaning that even the most lowly worker could suspend operations indefinitely. But the great tragedy had no shortage of warning signs. Rick Wartzman therefore asks why no one on the rig stepped up to issue a stop-work order. In a heavily-specialized environment, workers know their job better than anyone else. This gives them the authority to issue a stop order. According to Mr. Warzman, it appears as though some tried to sound the alarm, but there was too much control at the top.
Check out Mr. Warzman’s article here.
Snoop on Your Neighbor’s Energy Use with New Microsoft Hohm Software August 12, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in green business, new products and technologies.Tags: energy, green, new products and technologies
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Microsoft has developed a new software program, called Hohm, that gathers from a variety of public sources the energy consumption of homes. Using a MapQuest-like satellite view, entering an address –including your own –will reveal energy consumption and cost. It also includes the ability to tell a homeowner how efficient their home could be with improvements.
Check out the Fast Company article here.
China Is Overtaking U.S in the Clean Energy Race July 16, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in government, green business.Tags: energy, government, green business
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A report from the Pew Charitable Trusts finds that China has overtaken the United States in clean energy and technology investments. In 2009, Chinese government-funded initiatives meant China invested $34.6 billion in clean technology. The United States came in second with $18.6 billion; and the United Kingdom in third with $11.2 billion. However, since 2005, investment in clean energy has increased by 230%.
Check out the FastCompany analysis here.
Companies See Mixed Results Implementing Energy Efficiency Measures June 18, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in government, green business.Tags: energy, government, green business
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Companies worried about pending carbon emissions legislation are looking to preempt new laws by looking for energy efficient production alternatives. Either production costs or increased energy tax rates –or both –will strain companies. While some companies may find it easy to reduce energy consumption, other companies will find it difficult to make energy changes, with costs ranging in the range of hundreds-of-millions of dollars. The steel industry, for example, has cut emissions by a third over the past two decades –but the technology they need to continue cutting emissions hasn’t progressed enough yet –and the pending carbon emissions legislation doesn’t allow enough time.
Check out the New York Times article here.
Solar Panels Made Three Times Cheaper and Four Times More Efficient June 18, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in green business, new products and technologies.Tags: energy, green business, new products and technologies
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The latest in a series of efforts to make solar panels more affordable and more efficient has yielded CUESS: the Concentrated Universal Energy Solar System. Essentially, the panel uses nine troughs and acrylic lenses to focus the sun’s rays on a strip of photovoltaic cells for electricity. Beneath them, a heat generator creates heat for circulating water and a water storage system for hot water. The drawback is that 1,700 of the total 2,100 watts are measured in terms of the heated water. Yet, where as a current solar panel has 18% efficiency, the CUESS will have 50% efficiency.
Check out the GizMag analysis of the CUESS here.
Solar Roadways Prototype Now Built April 20, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in green business, new products and technologies.Tags: energy, green, new products and technologies
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The Department of Energy gave Solar Roadways a $100,000 grant, which they in turn used to develop a solar-powered road sign prototype. When a pedestrian steps on a panel to cross the street, the sign displays “slow down” messages. It is hoped the technology will cut down on accidents.
Check out the Coolest Gadgets review here.
Alcoa, National Renewable Energy Lab, Test New Solar Technology April 20, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in green business.Tags: energy, green business
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Alcoa and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab are jointly conducting a test on Concentrating Solar Power technology in order to make it more affordable in the United States. Alcoa has created a design solution which would help high-volume manufacturing to help lower installation costs. The simplicity of the design would likewise help with installation costs.
Check out the Industry Week article here.
Tropical Frog Inspires New Way to Convert Solar Energy to Biofuel April 20, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in green business.Tags: energy, green business
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Engineers from the University of Cincinnati have developed an artificial photosynthetic material from foam. The foam, using plant, bacterial, frog and fungal enzymes, can produce sugar from carbon-dioxide and sunlight. The design, however, is not quite revolutionary, as inspiration for the foam rests with the semi-tropical Tungara Frog. The Tungara Frog creates foams for developing tadpoles, which in turn inspired the engineers.
Check out the GizMag article here.
Bill Gates Video: We Need an Energy Miracle March 23, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in green business.Tags: energy, green
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Bill Gates has become the latest spokesman for alternative energy solutions. FastCompany has posted an address by Mr. Gates in which he talks about the immediate need to use alternative energy. He wants, ultimately, to even out use of CO2 to net zero. He talks about using depleted uranium as a means to power the United States, among other fixes. Peducah, Kentucky, for example, has enough spent uranium to power the United States for two centuries.
Check out the video at FastCompany here.
The Top 10 States for Wind Power March 23, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in green business.Tags: energy, green
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The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has revealed some refreshing new statistics about wind energy potentials for the great United States. Offshore wind can produce 37,000,000 gigawatt-hours of energy a year –nine times than what is necessary to power the United States. But the states themselves also house fantastic potential for wind power. The top ten windy states list is topped by Texas, Kansas, and Montana.
Check out the entire list at FastCompany here.
America Risks Missing Out in Clean Technology February 17, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in green business, new products and technologies.Tags: energy, green, new products and technologies
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With decades-high unemployment, Americans are looking for new sources of employment. Clean energy and green industry jobs have long been promoted as the savior of the economy of the United States. It is estimated that between 2009 and 2013, the United States will have been out-invested by Asian nations in clean technology, by three-to-one. Why? Because countries like Japan and China attract clean technology with good incentives and create the conditions for a low risk environment. Congressional legislation is currently focused on limiting carbon and punitive measures, not on investment in green innovation.
Check out the article here.
Why Small Manufacturers are Going Green December 30, 2009
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in green business, manufacturing.Tags: energy, green business, manufacturing
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With the debate around global warming heating up in recent years, companies have modified their processes and products to address consumer concerns over environmental practices. One of the improvements many small manufacturers are making is the investment in clean energy. Whether they are utilizing clean energy or producing the means to make clean energy, like the company Shuttleworth in Indiana, going green is in. The fact that even smaller companies are doing what they can to go green is indicative of the consumer and political environment. Because of that environment, green manufacturing offers a silver lining to an otherwise overcast economy.
For the BusinessWeek article, go here.
Energy, Other Costs a Major Concern for Manufacturers December 14, 2008
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in green business, manufacturing.Tags: energy, green, manufacturing
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TBM Consulting Group’s annual “Multinational Manufacturing Pulse” reveals that manufacturers’ level of anxiety over rising energy costs has more than doubled since last year, resulting in an increased commitment to eliminate waste. The majority of respondents (53%) ranked ‘cost pressures’ as the biggest hurdle to success in the year ahead. Nevertheless, 33% identified ‘rising energy costs’ as a source of angst, a dramatic increase from last year’s responses at 11%.
Read a fuller description of the results in IndustryWeek here.
New Technology Uses Slow Currents To Generate Energy December 14, 2008
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in green business.Tags: energy, green
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The UK’s Telegraph reported that ”A revolutionary device that can harness energy from slow-moving rivers and ocean currents could provide enough power for the entire world, scientists claim.” The device “can generate electricity in water flowing at a rate of less than one knot — about one mile an hour — meaning it could operate on most waterways and sea beds around the globe. Existing technologies which use water power, relying on the action of waves, tides or faster currents created by dams, are far more limited in where they can be used, and also cause greater obstructions when they are built in rivers or the sea.” The new technology, “which has been inspired by the way fish swim, consists of a system of cylinders positioned horizontal to the water flow and attached to springs. As water flows past, the cylinder creates vortices, which push and pull the cylinder up and down. The mechanical energy in the vibrations is then converted into electricity.” The Telegraph noted, “The system, conceived by scientists at the University of Michigan, is called Vivace, or ‘vortex-induced vibrations for aquatic clean energy.’”
Read the full article here.
Miniature Solar Cells Much Smaller Than This: o November 25, 2008
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in green business.Tags: energy, green business
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Wired Science reports that engineers have constructed a solar array smaller than a dime out of 20 solar cells, each cell tinier than a quarter of this lowercase “o.”
The mini photoelectric device only generates seven volts of electricity. But that could be enough to power the kind of microsensors military planners imagine will provide the soldier of the future with first-person-shooter-like battlefield intelligence. That’s why the Army is a major sponsor of the project, which is described in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy.
Unlike conventional silicon solar cells, the new device is created from carbon-based, organic polymers. The study’s authors argue the array could transform electronics, even though right now it is far less efficient than silicon cells.
Read the full article here.
