Green Building & Manufacturing Articles
Sunlight With Cooling Factor
ScienceDaily (May 3, 2010) — Although it sounds like a contradiction in terms, using the power of the sun for refrigeration is proving to be an original energy concept. In Tunisia and Morocco, Fraunhofer research scientists are using solar energy to keep perishable foodstuffs such as milk, wine and fruit fresh.
"Refrigerated by sunlight" -- we could well see an ecostatement like this printed on food packaging in the years ahead. Solar energy is already being used to power air-conditioning systems in buildings, but now researchers also want to refrigerate fruit and other perishable foodstuffs using energy from the sun. Scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg are demonstrating that this is feasible in the Mediterranean region using the examples of a winery in Tunisia and a dairy in Morocco. In the MEDISCO project (short for MEDiterranean food and agro Industry applications of Solar COoling technologies) solar plants for refrigerating milk and wine have been installed in cooperation with universities, energy agencies and European companies. The project funded by the European Commission is run by the Polytechnic University of Milan.
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Energy-related CO2 emissions are now down nearly 10% from 2005 levels. Can't this country manage another 7% drop in 10 years?
Clean energy leads the way
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) just issued its must-read report on U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions in 2009. It turns out energy-related CO2 emissions have dropped faster than EIA had expected just a few months ago (see my September post, "EIA stunner: By year's end, we'll be 8.5% below 2005 levels of CO2 — halfway to climate bill's 2020 target").
Surely this country could reduce CO2 emissions a little more than 7% in 10 years and meet the modest target set out in the Senate climate bill, which appears likely to be introduced next week. It really isn't bloody hard (see Game changer part 2: Unconventional gas makes the 2020 Waxman-Markey target so damn easy and cheap to meet).
Yes, a part of the recent drop in CO2 is due to the recession, but actually that was only just a piece. Other key factors including low natural gas prices, gains in efficiency, state renewable energy standards, and a clean-energy-friendly stimulus (see "EIA projects wind at 5% of U.S. electricity in 2012, all renewables at 14%, thanks to Obama stimulus!").
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Clean water cause to celebrate
Matt Wilding went hunting for a fresh-brewed cup of coffee. Abi Green could not wait to wash dishes. After news that water was safe again, hundreds of thousands joyously let their faucets run.
After less than three days under orders to avoid drinking, washing hands, or cooking with tap water, celebrations of relief took many forms. And many discovered they had a whole new perspective about turning on the tap.
"You don't realize until you don't have it, how much you use this stuff," said Nadene Daley of Canton, who said she had to guard her granddaughter from drinking the water and used bottled water for her dog. "It has been quite a headache."
Becky Smith, water coordinator for Clean Water Action, a nonprofit citizens advocacy group, said yesterday that the reaction to the leak shows that people tend to assume they will always have clean water.
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We have lots of water, but Metro urges residents to conserve
When it comes to water, Metro Vancouver has a plentiful supply, with cool, wet summers, huge snowpacks and heavy rainfalls topping up the region's reservoirs.
But with a warming climate, global water shortages and a steadily climbing population, Metro Vancouver is once again warning residents to conserve water -- or face the consequences.
This could include water metering so residents pay for the water they use or, one day -- far into the future -- treating the Fraser River to bulk up the region's water supply.
"We have very, very cheap water. Unfortunately people take that for granted because we have a seemingly endless supply," said Vancouver Coun. Tim Stevenson, a head of Metro's water committee. "But like everything else we have to conserve it."
The good news is the region is already on its way to water sustainability, with the average per-capita water consumption -- for everything from residential to industrial use -- dropping to 500 litres per day in 2008 from 559 litres in 2006 and 728 litres in 1986.
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Will Lithium-Air Battery Rescue Electric Car Drivers From 'Range Anxiety'?
A battery that could challenge petroleum
"Let's say we want to electrify the entire fleet of vehicles in the world," said Jeffrey Chamberlain, head of Argonne's Energy Storage Major Initiative and one of the lab's leading battery chemists. "Lithium-ion batteries will get us partway there. But in reality, they're not quite high enough in energy density or quite low enough in cost."
He called lithium-air a "dream-type battery": Look at the periodic table, he said, and the only element that carries more energy than lithium, for its weight, is hydrogen. If the models are right, lithium-air could get to that energy far better than lithium-ion, approaching the limit of what a battery can do. It could even rival the energy density of petroleum -- one of the most energy-packed substances on earth.
That would tectonically shift the economics of electric cars. Right now, carmakers face "range anxiety": They worry Americans will hesitate to buy an electric car that can only go a few dozen miles.
Chamberlain said lithium-air could banish that fear. "You really imagine instead of going 40 miles between charges, you could go 200 or 400 miles," he said.
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Bill Gates pays for 'artificial' clouds to beat greenhouse gases
The first trials of controversial sunshielding technology are being planned after the United Nations failed to secure agreement on cutting greenhouse gases.
Bill Gates, the Microsoft billionaire, is funding research into machines to suck up ten tonnes of seawater every second and spray it upwards. This would seed vast banks of white clouds to reflect the Sun's rays away from Earth.
The British and American scientists involved do not intend to wait for international rules on technology that deliberately alters the climate. They believe that the weak outcome of December's climate summit in Copenhagen means that emissions will continue to rise unchecked and that the world urgently needs an alternative strategy to protect itself from global warming.
Many methods of cooling the planet, collectively known as geoengineering, have been proposed. They include rockets to deploy millions of mirrors in the stratosphere and artificial trees to suck carbon dioxide from the air. Most would be prohibitively expensive and could not be deployed for decades.
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Climate change a game changer for Epcor
Where others see drought, Epcor president and CEO Don Lowry senses opportunity.
"As time marches on, the scarcity of water will increasingly become an issue, and the requirement to manage it wisely," Lowry said Friday.
Speaking to reporters at Epcor's annual meeting in Edmonton, Lowry said water's true value as a precious commodity will become more apparent in coming years and the city-owned company is poised to take advantage at home and abroad.
"I look around the rest of North America and other parts of the world, and the scarcity of water is huge. You're seeing more desalination plants being built, you're seeing more countries using recycled waste water. ... You're seeing crops being converted that were once high-irrigation into low because there isn't any water.
"I see an opportunity within the change in climate."
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Wind power: Clean energy solution of the month-Video
Our favorite climate de-crocker, Peter Sinclair has now started putting together videos on clean energy solutions. Here's his latest:
Wind Power is truly a core climate (and peak oil) solution. If you want to know more, here's where to start:
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House passes Home Star
One step closer to a clean energy future
Yesterday's bi-partisan passage of the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010 in the House is a critical milestone on the road to economic recovery, alleviating America's jobs crisis, and lessening our energy use. The alliance behind this $6 billion rebate program to encourage Americans to invest in more energy-efficient homes is nothing short of historic. CAP's Tina M. Ramos and Bracken Hendricks have the story.
On Wednesday, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Association of Home Builders, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced that votes related to HOME STAR would be considered in their annual legislative scorecards, joining unlikely allies like the Laborer's International Union of North America and the League of Conservation Voters in supporting HOME STAR. These are groups have had widely different positions on climate policy, yet they agree on the effectiveness of HOME STAR and on the need to build a movement around clean energy solutions. At a time of deep national division on so many critical policy issues, the ability of these groups – along with the support of nearly 500,000 businesses and organizations – to find common cause in restoring our economy offers a better way forward.
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Sustenance in sight
An upbeat jobs report suggests America will shrug off the latest financial turbulence
THE question hanging over America's economic recovery for the past year is whether it could continue once it threw away the crutches of government support. It increasingly looks like the answer is yes.
In April, American non-farm payrolls grew by a robust 290,000, or 0.2%, the largest monthly increase in four years. Temporary census workers accounted for about 66,000 of the increase, but that still meant private employment grew briskly.
The news gets better: employment figures for the previous two months were revised upwards, so it now looks to have risen for four consecutive months. Looking at the composition of the gains, manufacturing jobs rose by 44,000, the fourth consecutive gain; and even construction rose. Indicators of future labour demand were upbeat: temporary staffing agencies bulked up, and on average employees worked longer weeks.
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Suffolk companies face inquiry over use of toxic chemical
Two companies opened here in 2006 with little fanfare or debate, each reliant on a chemical called methyl bromide, which the world is trying to ban because it depletes the ozone layer in the atmosphere.
It also is highly toxic to humans.
Royal Fumigation, near homes in downtown Suffolk, and Western Fumigation, next to a school on the edge of the city, both use the chemical to kill pests on timber and other goods bound for overseas ports or entering the United States as imports.
The companies spray more than 20 tons of methyl bromide a year onto goods stacked indoors under plastic tarps, in accordance with regulations set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Workers must wear protective clothing and respirators during the procedure, which can last for hours.
Once the chemical treatment is finished , gas emissions are dispersed through ceiling vents and by opening doors at company warehouses.
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Study Paves Way for New Biofuels Models, Technologies
ScienceDaily (May 10, 2010) — Biofuels hold promise as environmentally friendly sources of renewable energy, but which ones should industry and policy leaders focus their efforts on developing? A new study involving researchers from North Carolina State University offers detailed insights into how biofuel chemicals react when burned. Their data and new computer models pave the way for development of new biofuels and technologies to maximize energy efficiency while minimizing environmental and human health risks.
"Biofuels are a sensible choice as a renewable energy source, but of course there are complications," says Dr. Phillip Westmoreland, a co-author of the study, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and director of the Institute for Computational Science and Engineering at NC State. "All of the biofuels have pros and cons, and you can't manage or plan for use and risks unless you understand them enough."
The new paper helps define these risks by finding the network of chemical steps that take place when biofuels are burned. An invited overview for Angewandte Chemie, one of the world's premier chemistry journals, the paper draws on landmark research conducted by Westmoreland and his co-authors from research institutions in the United States, Germany and China.
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Digging Up Coal's Dirty Legacy
Q&A with author Jeff Biggers
Reckoning at Eagle Creek book coverAs a young man, writer Jeff Biggers wanted to get far away from the southern Illinois coalfields where his ancestors first put down roots 200 years ago. But when he found out that his family homestead had been sold to a coal company and strip-mined, he decided it was time to return and revisit a family legacy at risk of being lost. In his new book, Reckoning at Eagle Creek, Biggers traces how coal has helped shape many aspects of American cultural history, from the mistreatment of Native Americans to slavery to the labor movement. Journalist Sarah Schmidt talked to him as he was driving through the Blue Ridge Mountains recently after meeting with Appalachian coal miners to discuss the future of their livelihood in the wake of a disaster that cost the lives of 29 men in West Virginia earlier this month.
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Are Green Buildings Always Healthy?
Believe it or not, not all green buildings are as healthy and sustainable as they appear. In fact, many of them could be inadvertently harming the health of their occupants through the products and materials used in their construction and design.
"Now more than ever, indoor air pollution from product emissions is a huge concern,” says Dr. Marilyn Black, world-renowned scientist, indoor air quality expert, and founder of the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute (GEI). "As the demand for more energy-efficient, tightly sealed buildings grows, so does the risk for trapping indoor air pollutants inside. We end up inhaling countless chemicals that off-gas from interior products and materials – chemicals that are known to make us sick.”
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California Title 20 Mandates Higher Efficiency for Metal Halide Luminaires
California new Title 20 standards, which went into effect January 1, 2010, created new energy efficiency standards for 150-500W metal halide light fixtures used in indoor and outdoor applications. These fixtures may not be manufactured in the State of California unless they meet the new standards.
Indoor fixtures: First, no probe-start ballasts are allowed. Next, the fixture must comply with the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which imposes a minimum acceptable efficiency of 88% for its pulse-start ballast.
But then Title 20 goes beyond EISA 2007, requiring one of four options.
1. Minimum ballast efficiency of 90% for 150-250W lamps and 92% for 251-500W lamps. Basically, by choosing a higher-efficiency ballast than that required by EISA 2007, the Title 20 requirement can be satisfied.
2. A ballast with an efficiency of 88% or greater AND an integral occupancy sensor with a default setting to automatically reduce lamp power through dimming by at least 40% within 30 minutes or less of an area being vacated.
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