Bad News For the Environment: EPA Likely to Begin Regulating Emissions

Well, with Obama comes Change. With Change comes...yep, you guessed it, more of the same: big government meddling in affairs the government has no business meddling in.

Apparently the Environmental Protection Agency, which has done nothing but @#$@#$ things up since its inception, is going to "regulate" carbon and other emissions. Yay. Every time you breathe out, you'll be taxed, I guess.

For the Gorebots who want to whine and moan about how carbon dioxide is "ruining" our environment and "causing" global warming (uhh...human emissions of CO2 account for only 0.117% of the total...hardly "significant"), I ask: how is putting the EPA in charge of forcing people to "comply" with some kind of CO2 regulation going to "fix" any problems?

I'll answer you: it won't. Remember how Obama promised "Green Collar" jobs? Well, when you over-regulate business, tear up the economy, and create new taxes (government fees are taxes too), you REDUCE the number of jobs. Every time you raise minimum wage? Yep, jobs are lost. Look it up if you want. The numbers aren't hard to find.

I'm getting a little off point, though. The point of THIS post was specifically to say that the EPA is probably going to regulate emissions in the future. I have an idea: government, police thyself. Since the United States government is America's #1 polluter, maybe they should clean house FIRST before they start pointing guns at the rest of us to do it?

Here's the original copy of the original NY Times story. I'm not going directly to the NYT as they require a login to read stories there.

The Solar-Powered G.W. Walking Chariot

Just mark this one down as "holy crap, that's awesome!" Funny as hell and I definitely want one! Check it out, with video, at Zoomilife.

How to Hack your Prius and the Debate Over the “New” 2010 Model

Ever since Toyota announced that the 2010 Prius would be a plug-in (PHEV), there’s been some noise from the community about whether this is really a big change for the little hybrid. After all, most foreign models already have an “EV” button that allows the car to run on battery alone for short distances.

Read about it at Zoomilife.

Media Credibility, Not Ice Caps, In Meltdown

From American Thinker, by Peter C Glover:

Eco-warriors and media hype aside, the fact is, as we head into 2009, that the world's ice mass has been expanding not contracting. Which will surprise evening news junkies fed a diet of polar bears floating about on ice floes and snow shelves falling into the oceans. But if a whole series of reports on ice growth in the Arctic, the Antarctic and among glaciers are right, then it is truth in the mainstream media (MSM) that's in meltdown not the polar ice caps.

The problem for the MSM is that it long ago nailed its colors to the climate alarmist mast. No ice cap meltdown, no rising waters. No disappearing islands, no reason for alarm. No alarm, no story. Worst of all having called yet another global apocalypse wrong: No credibility. So the MSM has a significant stake in running highly selective warm-mongering headlines. Not to mention disparaging those scientists who have the temerity to disagree as 'holocaust deniers' and 'pseudo-scientists'.

There's nothing more the climate alarmist media loves than a 'melting Arctic' ice cap story. So why not stories from the far larger expanse of ice that is the 'melting' Antarctic? Well it might have something to do with the fact that the Antarctic ice grew to record levels in 2007 - and continues to grow.

Read the rest by clicking here.

GO GREEN... NOT! Captain Planet & Obama's Policies.

Why reward Detroit (and punish taxpayers) for making unprofitable cars?

Is Solar Right For You?

Mother Earth News has a great online article for the beginner to solar power who wants to know if it's the right solution for their home. Sure, the sun shines everywhere, but that doesn't mean that solar is the right solution for your home's power needs. The area you live in, the cost of the system, and your average power usage are all factors to be considered here. In my opinion, photovoltaics aren't generally a solution for most homes, but solar thermals (for water heating or home heating) are.

The the great article from Mother Earth at this link.

Small, Ultra-Efficient Diesels Coming to America?

Americans, for one reason or another, have never embraced small cars with diesel motors. This despite the fact that, overall, they're much more fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly than most of their gasoline counterparts.

In Europe, these cars are everywhere and quite popular. Both the Mini Cooper and various Audi models come in diesel formats. So why not in America?

Maybe I'm a little biased, having been a truck driver and all, but it seems to me that these should be common sights here. I think the reason they aren't is because most "greenies" in the U.S. see diesel as "that ugly black smoke from the stack." Even though modern reburning diesels don't do this.

The fact is, the latest round of emissions laws from Uncle Sam virtually knocked almost all small diesels off the market a couple of years ago. Despite this, Audi will be bringing their A3 hatchback to America again and BMW just got IRS tax credits approved for their X5 and 335d models. All of these, however, are high-dollar variants.

What about the rest of us? Well, don't expect to see any Mini-Ds or similar cars here, since the cost of meeting those emissions standards is too high to justify it (though BMW has said they're thinking about it). The Audi A3's gasoline counterpart sells for about $30,000 right now, so the diesel will likely be in that same range. That'll be as cheap as it gets.

On the other hand, with Honda's new Insight hybrid hitting the streets at $20,000 in a couple of months, maybe diesel doesn't matter anymore. Road tests are showing that is getting higher than 60mpg!

Rechargeable Batteries With Solar Panels Built-In

Here's an interesting one: Knut Karlsen (an inventor) has covered some rechargable C-cell batteries with small solar panels (the flexible kind). Now, when left in the sun, the batteries automatically recharge.

How much they'll charge, how fast, or even how safe this is are not questions answered by the inventor (yet), but the idea is pretty cool. HE made these in his own home workshop and nothing complicated is required: some flexible, thin-film sheets and some glue is about it.

Nice!

Click here to see Knut's workshop and his full DIY info for this project.

Thin vs. Standard Solar Panel Discussion

Buddhist Beer Temple

Monks in northeast Thailand have built a temple out of over one million empty beer bottles. No word yet on who actually drank all that beer, though it supposedly wasn't the monks themselves.

The bottles were collected over a long period of time, starting in 1984, when the monks started recycling bottles for income and public service. They collected so many that they got the idea of using them as building materials. Local authorities began delivering bottles that would otherwise be put in a landfill to the monks.

The monks have now built an entire complex of temple buildings (20 in all) using the bottles. Everything from the temple itself to a water tower, prayer rooms, tourist bathrooms, and more.

Since the bottles don't lose their color, are durable, and are very easily cleaned, they are almost perfect. Color combinations make for spectacular building looks and mosaics created from bottle caps "top off" the awesome structures.

And I have an idea who really drank all that beer. I've seen "Drunken Master," after all...

Reason on Detroit

Green "Stimulus" In The Porker's Passage

The $900 billion pork ...er... "stimulus" bill has some stuff that Eco-Geeks will like. I expect Matthew Lesko will be pimping a new book on this subject soon enough.

First, if you're planning to install a solar power system, do it before 2010. You can get a grant to pay for up to 30% of it.

If you're a business who wants to build geothermal, PV, or solar thermal plants for grid-connected electrics, you can get a loan from the DOE. $60 billion was set aside for that...

Maybe you're going to buy one of the new plug-in hybrids like the Toyota Prius or the Honda Insight? There's a $7,500 tax credit there, but only if you get one of the first 250,000 sold (per manufacturer). Those who want to go totally green with an all-electric are SOL, since those credits aren't even close to the hybrid one. Hmm...wonder if the Big 3 had anything to do with this part?

Speaking of no-bid contracts, the government plans to green up their own buildings at a cost of only $5.5 billion, with about 75% of that going towards solar projects.

Oh, ya, and you know those GE commercials that feature their version of the Straw Man from Oz? Well, companies who utilize that sort of tech can get 50% of their costs reimbursed by the government, for a total of $30 billion in smart grid improvements.

Hey, can't forget the Wall Street types. They financed all those politician's campaigns, so they gotta get something. Well, besides the bailouts, they're also getting a 30% investment tax credit for investing in clean power technologies. So, if you're an investor, here's my unsolicited (unprofessional) investment advice: watch for companies that get those DOE loans from that $60 billion kitty and then invest in them and take the tax credit too. They're sure to last at least as long as the loans are forthcoming, which with government generally means forever.

Oh, and once they actually start producing something in the way of power or energy, they get production tax credits too (another 30%). Win-win-win for everyone but the taxpayer!

Finally, we can't forget about those wonderful Green Jobs that Obama is always going on about. I mean, they're THE FUTURE, right? Of course they are, people, even though they aren't exactly defined and nobody really knows what they are yet. Details! Well, $500 million is being set aside to create these wonderful Green Jobs (probably out of thin air). Actually, it's to TRAIN people in these not-yet-existing jobs so that they can be ready to take them when they magically appear later.

Yep, the Simporkulus bill is full of great stuff for the EcoGeek. Plus, as an added incentive, the money used to pay for all this happy greenness comes from your grandchildren! w00t!

Non-Renewable Parts Of the Renewable Solar Voltaic System

Did you know there's stuff in a solar photovoltaic system that aren't renewable? I figured as much, but I thought it would just be silicon or something. That stuff's everywhere. But it turns out it's something nobody's ever heard of--least of all me.

Indium is an element used in solar PV systems. Apparently, there's a supply constraint and possible limits to the amount easily accessible. The indium is used to beat the limits that silicon by itself has in electrical conduction.

There's a long report detailing this at Fast Company here, at this link.

A European Perspective on Green Tech

Thin Film Solar Demonstration

Irish Firm Announces World's Most Efficient Solar Water Heater

While solar photovoltaic systems get a lot of press, solar heating is actually much more efficient, cutting out most of a home's energy usage (which is rarely electric) by big numbers.

Surface Power, is an Irish firm that makes solar water heaters. Newly-released independent certifications of the firm's claims that their solar heaters are up to 131% more efficient than others on the market. This means the payback time (ROI) on these systems can be reduced by as much as half.

These panels are aimed at the home renovation, small office building upgrades, and so forth. New construction is easily accomodated, but these more lucrative renovators are much more likely to gain new business in today's market.

Nice work from the Irish here!

FTC Sues Water for Gas Scammers

The FTC release info can be read here.

Deceptive advertising used to promote the so-called "water for gas" schemes--you've seen them, the ones where you can supposedly ad a couple of wires and a mason jar of baking soda to your car to get 50% better mpg...

Ya, that stuff. Well, apparently the FTC had decided to put a stop to the deceptive advertising these people use to push their products.

Too bad it's so bad that the FTC actually bothered to notice and do something about it. I would have thought that regular people would be smart enough to disbelieve this crap on their own, but apparently the nanny state needs something to do.

At least they're focusing on something worthwhile this time.

Wind Energy Growth

Google on Solar Thermal Energy

Toyota Making Hybrid Big Rigs in 2010

Hino Motors, Ltd., a large-vehicle subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, will be introducing a hybrid truck in Japan, the USA, and Australia in 2010. These trucks will see about 2.5 times better fuel economy than current, comparable (conventional) models.

Read more about it at this link.

Renewable Energy World Conference - March 10 - 12: Las Vegas

The 6th Renewable Energy World Conference is March 10 - 12 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Making Better & Cheaper EV Batteries

Research and development of better, more efficient, lighter, and stronger battery technologies has been taking off full steam lately. Researchers at MIT are working to find a better solution of chemicals for lithium-ion batteries, for instance, while another lab at MIT is working on lithium replacements as there may be lithium shortages soon.

Read the whole thing here.

BREAKING NEWS from Tesla Motors

Tesla Gets $350m Loan, To Unveil Model S in March, Go On Sale In 2011

Tesla Motors made three major announcements in a press release today: the Model S will be in street-drivable form in March, the Department of Energy loaned them $350 million, and they’ll be solvent by mid-year this year (even without the loan).

Read more about it here.

First Flight of Algae-Fueled Jet

A US airline has completed the first test flight of a plane partly powered by biofuel derived from algae.

The 90-minute flight by a Continental Boeing 737-800 went better than expected, a spokesperson said.

One of its engines was powered by a 50-50 blend of biofuel and normal aircraft fuel.

Wednesday's test is the latest in a series of demonstration flights by the aviation industry, which hopes to be using biofuels within five years.

The flight was the first by a US carrier to use an alternative fuel source, and the first in the world to use a twin-engine commercial aircraft (rather than a four-engine plane) to test a biofuel blend.

The flight from Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport completed a circuit over the Gulf of Mexico, and pilots carried out a series of tests at 38,000ft (11.6km), including a mid-flight engine shutdown.

"The airplane performed perfectly," test pilot Rich Jankowski told the Houston Chronicle newspaper.

"There were no problems. It was textbook."

Read the rest at this link.

Honda Insight Hits the Streets of Japan for $21,000

Both the LX and EX packages will be coming to America in April and Honda has said that prices will be “under $20,000″ for U.S.

See this link for more.

Toshiba's Micro Fuel Cell Battery Recharger

Most new technology platforms must walk up the stages of the 'Hype Cycle', and confront our tendency to overestimate short-term change, but underestimate the long term potential.

Fuel cells are this decade's poster child for failing to meet expectations of the Hype Cycle. But there are positive signs of progress.

PC World is reporting that Toshiba plans to release its first commercial version of a Direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) battery recharger by the end of the first business quarter.

Micro Fuel cells help you unplug
Micro power applications are widely considered to be the first market application for fuel cells. Dozens of startups and incumbent energy companies are developing micro methanol fuel cells as portable power solutions that help us 'unplug everything'.

Rather than carry around a charger+cord, you could carry a small fuel cell to recharge. Of course the idea of a fuel cell battery recharger is still a strange concept to consumers, and could remain an early adopter niche product.

The inevitable step for micro fuel cells is to replace batteries entirely. To arrive at this future, hardware makers must integrate MFCs into products, and consumers must be able to buy small fuel cartridges (e.g. liquid methanol, solid hydrogen) on every retail shelf. Until that day, the 'recharger' concept is the industry's best option.

Read the rest at this link.

Wind Power Storage Medium

Compress Air Energy Storage (CAES) is nothing new. Cars in India use it to move around, my paintball gun uses it to fire gelatins of paint, and you probably have a can of it for cleaning your keyboard.

Using compressed air to store electrical energy isn't unusual and it's particularly well suited to wind power. Funny, that, in a sort of compressed, ironic way. :)

Iowa plans to use this to store the abundant wind energy that state produces to save on the long-range transmission losses associated with wind energy now. Since wind energy has to be used when it's made, storage is the best plan: allowing the stuff to be stored away until peaks and demands require it.

Here's the gist of how it works: some types of rocks, which happen to be abundant in the bedrock of Iowa, are like "sponges" for water and compressed air. The plan is to locate the "storage" facilities on top of these rocks and pump compressed air into the rocks. Then, when it's needed, it will be tapped and turned into heat (or just turn a turbine as-is) to generate the power that's needed to augment the grid.

Nice idea. You can read the details at this link.

Whirlpool Power!

Nope, not talking washing machines here. We're talking tidal whirlpools. An Austrian engineer named Franz Zotloterer (say that twice really fast) has a new method for small scale hydropower. You know, the kind that doesn't tear up an entire ecosystem Hoover style?

A whirlpool, or vortex (which sounds cooler), not only aerates the water, but generates a fair amount of energy. Energy that can be captured for use as electricity to power things.

In true inventive scientific fashion, Franz was working on his garden and realized that the natural swimming pool he'd built wasn't getting aerated enough. So he added a small rotation basin to aerate the water, which helps remove contaminates naturally, and hit upon an idea as he watched the water swirl...why not capture that energy?

His pilot plant to test this has a fall of only 1.3 meters, a flow rate of 1cm/second and produces 8kW of power from that. For us Americans, that's like 4.25 feet of fall with 265 gallons of agua moving through it. 8kW will power a dozen homes.

To get the water, a "head" (bump) of only 2.25 feet is needed, so thsi can be utilized on small waterways. The newly-aerated water is returned and the water is generally better for it. Nearly a total win-win. These vortex generators are perfect for small systems like this, but can't scale up beyond about 150kW, so don't expect to see large power plants disturbing huge waterways for this tech.

Probably a good thing.

For more, go to this link.

Suzuki Crosscage: The Awesome Hydrogen Fuel Cell Motorcycle

SWWEEEEEEEEET! Check it out:

*Click to go to article

U.S. becomes top wind producer, solar next

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States overtook Germany as the biggest producer of wind power last year, new figures showed, and will likely take the lead in solar power this year, analysts said on Monday.

Even before an expected "Obama bounce" from a new President who has vowed to boost clean energy, U.S. wind power capacity surged 50 percent last year to 25 gigwatts (GW) -- enough to power more than five million homes.

Political and business leaders worldwide have urged "green growth" spending on clean energy to fight both recession and climate change.

German wind power capacity reached nearly 24 GW, placing it second ahead of Spain and fourth-placed China, which doubled its installed wind power for the forth year running, said the Brussels-based Global Wind Energy Council.

"Governments must send a strong and unequivocal signal that the age of fossil fuels is over," said Steve Sawyer, secretary general of GWEC.

Global wind power production reached 121 GW at the end of 2008, growing by about 29 percent. New U.S. wind projects accounted for about 42 percent of the country's total new power-producing capacity added last year, GWEC said, underlining its challenge to more traditional forms of power generation, including coal and natural gas.

The wind sector is now suffering from a financial crisis which has dried up project finance and a sharp fall in oil prices which has weakened its competitiveness compared to gas, but it is aided by subsidies such as a guaranteed price premium in Germany and Spain.

Spanish wind power business group AEE said on Monday that it expected similar growth in 2009 as last year.

The U.S. Senate Finance Committee last week approved some $31 billion in tax breaks and other incentives to boost alternative energy supplies and efficiency as part of the Obama administration's much bigger U.S. economic stimulus plan.

Obama wants to double U.S. alternative energy output over three years.

The United States is also expected to overtake Germany this year as the world's biggest producer of solar power, aided by its far sunnier climate, Jefferies analyst Michael McNamara told Reuters on Monday.

European Union leaders agreed at the end of last year that the bloc should get a fifth of all its energy from renewable sources by 2020 compared with about 10 percent now.

Toshiba's Super-Safe Small Nuclear Power Plant

4S (Super-safe, Small, and Simple) Nuclear Reactor

Toshiba and the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI) are jointly developing a new class of micro size Nuclear Reactors that are designed to power large apartment buildings or small city sections. The new reactor, which is only 20 feet by 6 feet, could change everything for small remote communities, businesses or even a group of neighbors who are fed up with the power companies and want more control over their energy needs.

The 10 MW Toshiba-designed reactor is engineered to be fail-safe and totally automatic and will not overheat. Unlike traditional nuclear reactors the new micro reactor uses no control rods to initiate the reaction. The whole whole process is self sustaining and can last for up to 30 years without refueling, producing electricity for only 5 cents per kilowatt hour, about half the cost of grid energy.

Toshiba expects to commercialize the reactor after the mid 2010's.

Taken from this link.

Groundbreaking New Study Proves That Street Lights Help People See Better

I need to become a scientist. Really. You get grants and payments for doing studies like this one. Studies that require little (or no) actual work to pull off. I mean, comon, isn't it obvious that street lights make it easier to see? Sheesh.

All joking aside, though, this study might actually have some use. It was focused on the "after midnight" blackouts that many cities impose in order to save on utility costs and energy usage. Turns out, these blackouts actually cause some accidents.

Here's a good discussion of the study and its implications.

College Kids Build Hydrogen Fuel Cell Motorcycle

This is really cool. These college kids built a hydrogen fuel cell motorcycle. Check it out at this link.

Dumpster Converts Trash Into Gas (Power)

This might be the coolest thing I've seen in a long time. It's a dumpster that takes most types of trash (organics, especially) and converts them into gas that can be burned to create electricity. Pretty frikki' cool!

IST Energy makes this little power plant to sell to office complexes, hospitals, schools, and other large buildings. It's cost is pretty high, but considering how much some of these places can spend monthly in garbage removal and how much of that garbage can stay on-site and be made into electricity and heat production (as much as 15% of the average large building's needs), the price tag gets smaller fast.

Garbage still has to be sorted before it's thrown in, of course, since some things like plastics, metals, and glass aren't good for this process. Most buildings do this already, however, on some scale, so this is not much of an issue compared to households and smaller institutions. The other garbage that's left is totally recyclable too, of course.

Also, almost all emissions from these dumpster-power-generators are carbon and few (if any) toxins are released at all (most are filtered or reburned). This means that the dumpsters are much greener than, say, the local landfill or the average power utility.

There's a great animation of it over on the company's website that does a better job than I can of explaining the process. Click here to see that.

Great Solar Cell Efficiency Achieved in New World Record

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE have achieved a record efficiency of 41.1% for the conversion of sunlight into electricity. Sunlight is concentrated by a factor of 454 and focused onto a small 5 mm² multi-junction solar cell made out of GaInP/GaInAs/ Ge (gallium indium phosphide, gallium indium arsenide on a germanium substrate).

“We are elated by this breakthrough,” says Frank Dimroth, head of the group “III-V – Epitaxy and Solar Cells” at Fraunhofer ISE. “At all times the entire team believed in our concept of the metamorphic triple-junction solar cells and our success today is made possible only through their committed work over the past years.”

Read more here.

Solar Voltaic Paint - Awesome!