Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Hybrid Trees for Ethanol


Purdue University is researching hybrid poplar trees as a potential source of ethanol. One of the (many) problems with ethanol as a bio-fuel is the inefficiency of using corn to create it. There isn’t even enough corn in Indiana to fuel Indiana (this should tell you something), so a more plentiful, efficient source has to be found.

Enter the poplar tree, which can grow to 90 feet in six years and with genetic modification could have cell properties more conducive to producing fuel. If the experiment succeeds, poplars could prove a huge gain over corn (1000 gallons of ethanol per acre and no maintenance vs 400 for corn which requires a lot of attention).

The researchers optimistically predict that if the hybrids were planted on all the unused farm land in the US, the ethanol generated would replace 80% of US fossil fuels consumed for transportation.



Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Putting the Green in Green


One of the good things about $3 a gallon gasoline is that money is finally flowing into finding cheaper, more reliable sources of energy. The Boston Globe is reporting that in the first six months of this year venture capitol funding has ballooned to 445 Million dollars, up almost 60% over all of last year.

As Business Week points out, “You know a cultural movement is real when the money men get on board”
, and they are getting on board in increasingly meaningful numbers. Lets hope all this cash helps get green tech out of the news and into homes and driveways.



Monday, August 28, 2006

GM Announces Dual hybrid


The company that promised you hybrids were "of doubtful benefit" has announced that it will release a new hybrid technology in trucks and SUV’s in 2008. Using a combination of electric motors and timely deactivation of engine cylinders, the dual hybrid technology promises gains of 25% on current fuel economy.

The Good: The system works and has been tested in busses for several years.

The Bad: Unfortunately, since GM plans to launch this technology in trucks and SUVs that are anything but efficient, the actual savings will be meager (23 MPG instead of 18 for a Chevy Tahoe).



Sunday, August 27, 2006

Hybrid Cars Recoup Their Costs


It’s been conventional wisdom for a while now that hybrid cars are an emotional buy because unless they are being used in a commercial context, they never save enough gas to make back the extra money they cost. With $3 gas, Edmunds.com is reporting that understanding may be about to change.

Their study has found that certain models of hybrid (including the Prius and Escape) make back their extra cost within three years at current gas prices, when savings from tax incentives are accounted for. That means drivers will actually begin to enjoy some real financial advantages on top of that warm fuzzy feeling you get from not driving around in a poster car for oil addiction.

For more fun, Wired has done some studying of their own comparing cost savings of owning a hybrid to conventional cars. The result? With what you’re paying to gas up that SUV, any savings in initial cost is gone faster than a Buick warranty.



Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Rise of the Electric Car


Zap, the transportation company that sells all things small has announced plans to begin selling the first production all electric car designed for the US. Called the Shandong Zebra (complete with literal paint job), the three wheeled electric can reach speeds of 40 MPH and travel about 40 miles on a charge.

According to Zap, the target price is under $10,000 so it will not be a prohibitively expensive technology demonstrator. While this is hardly a worthy competitor to a gas vehicle, it is easy to imagine it finding a niche in cities like New York where it would compete with scooters and motorcycles by being more winter friendly.



Sunday, August 20, 2006

No Window in Your Office?


Oak Ridge Laboratory in Tennessee has developed a solar lighting technology that pipes sunlight into a building using fiber optics. This has huge potential advantages over powering artificial lights with solar energy because, as anyone with a corner office will tell you, there just isn’t a substitute for the quality of natural light. With a hybrid solar lighting system there is an additional energy savings that, according to the article, will make systems extremely cost effective over time.

Systems and installation are available now from Sunlight-Direct but prices are not posted on their site.

I Buy it for the Articles


The mainstreaming of environmentalism is taking one of the last big steps with the launch of the movement’s very own lifestyle magazine. “Shift” magazine will debut this fall and according to the web site will , “…entertain, inspire, and inform readers about practical advances in renewable energy, sustainable architecture, eco-travel, hybrid cars, organic food and fashion, and much more.”

Obviously if we didn’t like the sound of that, this blog wouldn’t exist, but I wonder if people are ready to ditch their Cosmo and GQ subscriptions and start identifying so openly with things green.



Saturday, August 12, 2006

Checking In on the Grid


A quick recap of what other environment and energy related blogs are reporting on:


  • Solar Hyper-Concentrators can produce cost competitive solar energy - Treehugger

  • Using brownfields to grow biofuel crops - sustainablog

  • A marketer of renewable energy answers reader questions – Grist



Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Hybrid Homer


Just in case you haven’t read enough here about the mainstreaming environmental movement, we wanted to point out this article from the BBC’s series, “The Green Room” titled, “Welcoming Homer the Tree Hugger”.
In it Simpsons writer George Meyer laughs at his own hypocrisy while making a pretty funny argument for spreading the environmental movement saying, “For years, the environmental movement has enlisted the world's most selfless and enlightened souls. No more. We're broadening our sights; and by broadening, I mean lowering.”

Of course as long as Greens are seen as a group ranking somewhere between film school snobs and objectivists on the fun scale there will be limits to how much anyone wants to associate themselves with environmentalism.



Sunday, August 06, 2006

Up on the Roof


Think green roofs are just for LEED certified Chicago government buildings? Think again. GreenGrid roofing systems has developed a completely modular, customizable and affordable green roofing solution for almost any dwelling with a flat roof.

With obvious tangible benefits (lower waste water production, lower cooling costs in the summer, and longer roof life) we wonder why looking out over our neighborhood of flat black tar roofs, things like this aren’t catching on more.

Dwell Well


Treehugger is one of several blogs to report on the September issue of Dwell Magazine focus on green architecture and building practices. Articles include, Sustainable Homes of Tomorrow, Today; Design Like You Give a Damn; Flooring With a Conscience; Tree Houses Grow Up; and several more.

Coming on the heels of recent covers in Time, Newsweek and Fortune talking about the mainstreaming of green its starting to look like consumers and even corporations are ahead of policy makers on this.

While this is all fine and good, there just doesn’t seem to be an way we’re going to buy and bandwagon our way to green friendly policies without a shift in policy, and sadly that shift seems at least one election away.



Saturday, August 05, 2006

The Power Tower



“Picture a 260-foot-diameter cylinder taller than the Sears Tower encircled by a two-mile-diameter transparent canopy at ground level”. No it’s not the latest Trump tower, it’s a giant solar power station about to be built in Australia. Business 2.0 magazine is reporting that construction is ready to begin on the huge solar powered turbine and that the design is being adopted by other producers in China and possibly the US southwest.

Sounds good to us, but we wouldnt want to live by it.

Just be Careful Where You Swim


While most alternate power generation continuing to focus on wind and solar, the Times is reporting that wave and tidal power is quietly becoming more than a laboratory oddity. With new “Wave Farms” being installed in Portugal and even New York’s East River getting large windmill style tidal generators, maybe this is a power source who’s time is finally coming.



Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Climate Change, Christians and the Governator


In really great news, the Governator and Prime Minister Tony Blair have agreed to create a trading market for Carbon Emissions between California and the UK. Once in place, this system will limit amount of carbon participants are able to emit and allow affected industry to buy or sell their allotments, eventually providing financial incentive for reducing carbon output.

While you have to think Bush is annoyed that someone he campaigned for is ignoring his federal policy of ignoring the problem, he was probably overjoyed when a coalition of 100 evangelicals came calling to present their “alternative on global warming.”

With great lines like, “Our common Judeo-Christian heritage teaches that the following theological and anthropological principles are the foundation of environmental stewardship”, their web site makes for hysterical, if depressing reading.