Green Building & Manufacturing Articles
How Airplanes Punch Holes in the Sky
How did this happen? The crazy-looking cloud formation in the photo above isn't a still from a sci-fi movie. It's not Photoshopped. It's quite real.
It's also totally artificial, which requires a bit of an explanation.
Since at least as early as the 1940s, meteorologists have been noticing formations like this, and it wasn't long before they figured out that aircraft were probably involved somehow - perhaps by creating a pressure wave as they passed through, or by heating the clouds and evaporating them.
By the 1980s, says Andrew Heymsfield, a scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, the holes had become more common, and the explanation had become clearer: as planes punch through cloud decks that have particular characteristics, the air is compressed, then expands and cools (just like the coolant in an air conditioner). The cooling forces water droplets to freeze into tiny ice particles; these in turn act as seeds around which raindrops or snowflakes can form. The clouds then ‘rain out' or ‘snow out', leaving a hole in their wake. (Not everyone buys this theory, as a headline from The Sun makes clear.)
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Environment worries to lift electric car sales: report
LONDON (Reuters) - Global sales of electric vehicles are set to rise this year due to worries about security of oil supply, the environment and fuel costs, UK consultancy J.D. Power said on Friday.
Global sales of electric cars are expected to reach 940,000 units this year compared with 732,000 units last year, with the number jumping to 3 million in 2015, J.D. Power analysts said in a report.
The uptake of battery powered cars is seen as key to fighting climate change by cutting carbon emissions, as well as a way to wean economies off imported or difficult to reach oil, as highlighted by BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
More than 98 percent of sales are expected to be of hybrid electric cars, which are part petrol, part battery, rather than plug-in cars, which are wholly battery powered and need to be charged from a power point.
J.D. Power also said it expected the U.S. to account for 55 percent of the hybrid market by 2015, followed by Asia with most of the sales in Japan.
"We think Asia as a whole will account for about 30 percent of global hybrid sales in 2015, with Japan's volume at nearly 750,000 units, or about 25 percent of the global hybrid market," it said.
In the smaller plug-in market, sales were forecast to be 23,000 this year, rising to 500,000 by 2015, but growth would be hampered by high vehicle costs and poor driving ranges compared with hybrids.
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TESTING CARBON DIOXIDE AS A MANUFACTURING MATERIAL.
If only we could do what trees do. Trees take carbon dioxide out of the air and, under the power of sunlight, combine it with water to make cellulose while releasing excess oxygen for us to breathe. Nice of those trees to provide us with fresh air. Give them a hug.
While a tree is alive and standing it can store or sequester carbon dioxide for many decades. Even when cut down for wood, parts of the tree that can be processed into lumber and building materials will continue to store carbon. Wooden components of buildings, such as 2 x 4's and plywood, will be storing carbon as long as the building stands, which can be 100 years or more. Wood used in furniture will last as long as the chair, table or chest of drawers. Wood made into high quality furniture can eventually become fine antiques storing carbon for a century. Buying good furniture and saving it for your grand kids is helping to save the planet by keeping that carbon locked-up instead of warming the planet.
So if by some manmade process carbon dioxide could be taken out of the air, or perhaps out of the exhaust of a power plant, and used to make a products that have long service lives, then carbon dioxide would be stored or sequestered and have value, even a price.
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Natural Currents Energy Services and City College of New York to Identify New Jersey Tidal Energy Sites.
Natural Currents Energy Services and City College of New York (CCNY) have announced that they are combining efforts to identify the top 20 tidal energy sites in New Jersey.
Recent advances in tidal energy technology, tidal site permitting and hydro-power demonstration projects have encouraged the New Jersey government officials to further support the investigation of the statewide potential for tidal power generation so that the state can achieve its goal of 20% renewable energy by 2020. It is believed that this analysis and the execution of tidal energy projects will generate jobs, stimulate the New Jersey economy and reduce atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gasses and CO2, which are known to impact the earth's climate.
Site selection is critical to hydrokinetic energy projects because the kinetic energy in a current is related to its speed cubed. This means a tide stream moving twice as fast as another tide stream of equal volume would generate eight times as much energy as the slower flow.
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New Process Is Promising for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars
ScienceDaily (June 18, 2010) - A new process for storing and generating hydrogen to run fuel cells in cars has been invented by chemical engineers at Purdue University.
The process, given the name hydrothermolysis, uses a powdered chemical called ammonia borane, which has one of the highest hydrogen contents of all solid materials, said Arvind Varma, R. Games Slayter Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and head of the School of Chemical Engineering.
"This is the first process to provide exceptionally high hydrogen yield values at near the fuel-cell operating temperatures without using a catalyst, making it promising for hydrogen-powered vehicles," he said. "We have a proof of concept."
The new process combines hydrolysis and thermolysis, two hydrogen-generating processes that are not practical by themselves for vehicle applications.
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Free DOE Webtool Outlines Multiple Paths to Big Lighting Energy Savings in Office Buildings
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has unveiled the Commercial Lighting Solutions for Office webtool. Available free at www.lighting-solutions.org, CLS for Office provides customizable lighting and control templates enabling building owners to generate more than 30% lighting energy savings compared to office buildings complying with prevailing energy codes.
Why is this big news?
The Federal stimulus targeted $5 billion to upgrade Federal buildings, with an estimated $1 billion being spent on lighting. The CLS for Office webtool was fast-tracked by DOE to support Federal facility managers who will be looking for solutions. Meanwhile, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 requires all new nonresidential Federal buildings to exceed ASHRAE 90.1-2004 by 30%.
Green construction is growing from about 10% of the current commercial building market to 20-2% by 2013, or $96-$140 billion, according to McGraw-Hill. Public construction at state and local levels benefits from Federal stimulus money as well, and more than 30 states, 35 counties and 135 cities now have laws and policies requiring or encouraging the use of LEED in public construction. These jurisdictions may begin adopting green construction codes based on standards such as ASHRAE's new Standard 189.1, published in January.
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New Air Conditioning System Has Potential to Slash Energy Usage by Up to 90 Percent
ScienceDaily (June 22, 2010) - Ah, the cool, refreshing feel of air conditioning on a sweltering summer day.
Ugh, the discomfort when those energy bills in July, August and September come due -- $200, $400, $600 or more.
Feel miserable, or dig deep into your wallet -- not much of a choice for the 250 million Americans who live in climates where heat, humidity or both are a Catch-22 for three to 12 months a year.
A soothing solution may be on its way, thanks to a melding of technologies in filters, coolers and drying agents.
The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory has invented a new air conditioning process with the potential of using 50 percent to 90 percent less energy than today's top-of-the-line units. It uses membranes, evaporative cooling and liquid desiccants in a way that has never been done before in the centuries-old science of removing heat from the air.
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A Colossal Fracking Mess: The dirty truth behind the new natural gas.
Early on a spring morning in the town of Damascus, in northeastern Pennsylvania, the fog on the Delaware River rises to form a mist that hangs above the tree-covered hills on either side. A buzzard swoops in from the northern hills to join a flock ensconced in an evergreen on the river's southern bank.
Stretching some 400 miles, the Delaware is one of the cleanest free-flowing rivers in the United States, home to some of the best fly-fishing in the country. More than 15 million people, including residents of New York City and Philadelphia, get their water from its pristine watershed. To regard its unspoiled beauty on a spring morning, you might be led to believe that the river is safely off limits from the destructive effects of industrialization. Unfortunately, you'd be mistaken. The Delaware is now the most endangered river in the country, according to the conservation group American Rivers.
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Finding the 'Weapons' of Persuasion to Save Energy
The professor takes great care in how he speaks. He knows when to talk and when to smile, when a laugh can disarm his listeners and draw them into his point. When answering questions, he'll pause mid-sentence to repeat the questioner's name, then continue.
Lately he has been pondering this question: For decades, advocates have tried the emotional and rational sells for saving energy. Turn off the lights, program the air-conditioner, unplug idle appliances, and it'll either benefit the planet or save piles of cash. While these tactics have picked up some steam, millions of Americans remain unmoved.
Influencing what people do is Robert Cialdini's business. Formerly of Arizona State University's psychology department, he wrote one of the best-selling books on persuasion of all time. "Influence" came out in 1984, and it's reached five editions since. Legions of college students and CEOs have pored over it; Cialdini presents its still-salient findings at motivational talks.
What made "Influence" so compelling was its simple distillation of decades of research into six principles, or "weapons," of persuasion.
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Solar energy offers a vast supply of power, but harnessing it is a challenge
We have a solar-based economy, whether or not we realize it. Ninety-four percent of the world's energy comes from the sun, even energy that doesn't at first glance seem solar. Coal, oil and natural gas are mostly the products of ancient plants that grew with the sun's help. The sun drives hydroelectric power by evaporating low-lying water, then dumping it at higher altitudes. Windmills turn because the sun warms the planet's air unevenly.
Fortunately, there's plenty of sun to go around. Our local star is continuously transmitting 180 quadrillion watts of energy to the Earth, 14,000 times our requirements for generating power. So the question isn't where to get our energy, but how to capture it.
Solar cells, also known as photovoltaic cells, are our most identifiable effort to convert the sun's energy into electricity. They depend on a phenomenon known as the photovoltaic effect, discovered in 1839 by a French teenager. Alexandre Edmond Becquerel, then 19, placed two metal plates in a salt solution and generated an electric current by simply placing his rig in the sun.
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Nanotubes Give Batteries a Jolt
Lithium-ion batteries with nanotube electrodes could go longer between charges.
A lithium-ion battery with a positive electrode made of carbon nanotubes delivers 10 times more power than a conventional battery and can store five times more energy than a conventional ultracapacitor. The nanotube battery technology, developed by researchers at MIT and licensed to an undisclosed battery company, could mean batteries that extend the range of electric vehicles and provide longer periods without recharging for electronic gadgets, including smartphones.
Researchers have been trying to make electrodes for lithium-ion batteries from carbon nanotubes because their high surface area and high conductivity promise to improve both energy and power density relative to conventional forms of carbon. But working with the material has proved challenging--most methods for assembling carbon nanotubes require a binding agent that brings down the conductivity of the electrode, and lead to the formation of clumps of the material, reducing the surface area. The electrodes made by the MIT group, however, have a very high surface area for storing and reacting with lithium. This high surface area is critical both to the high storage capacity of the electrodes, as well as their high power: because lithium is stored on the surface, it can move in and out of the electrode rapidly, enabling faster charging and discharging of the battery.
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Surge in hydropower schemes since 2000
The growing popularity for converting old water mills and weirs back to producing electricity has led to a six fold increase in hydropower in England and Wales over the last decade.
The number of new licences issued by the Environment agency for hydropower increased from just five in 2000 to 31 last year.
The Government quango has already issued 29 licences this year and is considering a further 166 applications, as people living on rivers take advantage of the renewable energy on their doorsteps.
People living in old water mills or by weirs have can even convert equipment that was last used a century ago to drive flour mills or factories.
The schemes are also popular because the Governmetn is offering to pay people for any electricity that is fed into the grid.
The feed-in tariffs scheme, which came into force in April, could pay around £25,000 a year for a medium-sized hydropower project which would cost around £100,000 to £150,000 to install, the Environment Agency said.
In all, there are around 400 hydropower schemes in England and Wales and the Environment Agency estimates the number could rise to 1,200 by 2020.
Small-scale hydropower currently produces enough electricity to power 120,000 homes in the UK, but could produce significantly more.
But anglers remain concerned that the increasing number of hydro-electric schemes will disturb fish and other river-dwelling animals like water voles.
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Is coal really worth it in West Virginia?
BECKLEY - A lengthy report performed on the industry's impact by two West Virginia groups leads to a penetrating question: Is King Coal the valuable monarch he projects, or an expensive court jester, draining away taxpayer dollars?
Covering more than 80 pages, the study was conducted by Rory McIlmoil and Evan Hansen of Downstream Strategies, based in Morgantown, and Ted Boettner and Paul Miller of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy in Charleston.
Before getting too deep inside the report, the two organizations answered the question, concluding that the coal industry "actually costs West Virginia taxpayers more than it provides."
As of two years ago, coal was produced in 27 counties with a combined output of 164 million tons and a payroll of 22,493 miners, managers and upper-level staff.
More than half of the production comes from five counties - Boone, Logan, Mingo, Kanawha and Monongalia.
"Coal's importance for West Virginia is not likely to grow in the future, based on the declining competitiveness of West Virginia coal, resulting from the depletion of the lowest cost coal reserves," the report said.
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Brown Pushes for U.S. Loans to Manufacturers in Energy Bill
June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat wary of the impact of climate legislation on U.S. manufacturers, says he is pushing to include billions of dollars of loans and tax credits in any energy measure.
Brown said he wants the Senate to add $30 billion in government-backed loans for manufacturers, and is asking the Obama administration for an additional $5 billion in tax credits for companies that invest in clean-energy facilities.
Those provisions might help struggling U.S. manufacturers expand, and induce companies in China, Japan and Europe to open up factories in the U.S., he said.
"There are certainly ways to encourage companies to invest here, and hire Americans," Brown said in an interview at Bloomberg's Washington office. "We can't continue to be a prosperous, middle-class society if we don't keep making things."
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Study: Canadian Oil Sands Could Lead U.S. Oil Imports This Year
Canadian oil sands are a growing source of petroleum, and by the end of this year, they'll probably be the leading source of crude oil imports into the United States, according to a new study by IHS CERA. Canada is already the primary source of crude oil imports into the United States, and the country has been steadily increasing its production of crude oil from oil sands while its conventional oil production has declined. Production from oil sands more than doubled over the past nine years, growing from 600,000 barrels per day in 2000 to 1.35 million barrels per day in 2009. Assuming that production rate is sustained this year, oil sands will produce more petroleum than conventional sources in Canada this year, and U.S. imports of petroleum from Canadian oil sands will be greater than imports from any other country. According to IHS, Canadian oil sands could provide 20%-36% of U.S. oil imports by 2030. See the IHS press release and report (PDF 558 KB). Download Adobe Reader.
The production of crude oil from Canadian oil sands is at issue due to its environmental impacts, including water and land use, the production of tailings, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A 2005 study by DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) found that the production of crude oil from Canadian oil sands (actually a mix of tar-like crude bitumen and synthetic crude oil) has GHG emissions equivalent to 104 kilograms of carbon dioxide per barrel, more than four times the GHG emissions caused by producing conventional crude oil in the United States. But the study also found that crude oil production in Nigeria has even higher GHG emissions-equivalent to 130 kilograms of carbon dioxide per barrel-due to the flaring of any natural gas released during production of the oil. See pages ES-3 and 12-13 (PDF pages 27 and 46-47) of the NETL report
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Building Information Modeling helps achieve LEED, architect says
Whether you're looking to earn project credits in LEED, or a number of other emerging building standards, construction industry players will find it less of a challenge by embracing Building Information Modeling (BIM), says a Toronto architect.
"Rating systems such as LEED are just tools to help us achieve design objectives," says Susan Spencer Lewin, Principal and Director of Sustainable Strategies with CS&P Architects of Toronto, and Vice Chair of the Toronto Chapter of the Canada Green Building Council. "But standards that once were designed to offer voluntary credits are now becoming mandatory in many Canadian jurisdictions, as they're adopted into building codes and by-laws, particularly by municipalities who are upping the ante."
BIM offers construction projects a system of integrated project delivery and a shared platform that provides information that any of the project team can use, says Lewin. That includes those who are trying to assess whether the project will meet the criteria of such credit-oriented programs as LEED.
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Scientists mimic essence of plants' energy storage system
In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine.
Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With today's announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.
Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. "This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years," said MIT's Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science. "Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon."
Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera's lab, have developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun's energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power your house or your electric car, day or night.
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Extolling the benefits of heating with pellets
The switch from oil makes sense on many levels, but it won't occur without government help.
Wind energy won't do it. Conservation and efficiency will make a big difference, but how about switching 1.4 million homes in seven states from oil heat to clean-burning, biomass boilers that are popular in Europe.
The conversion -- done over the next 15 years -- would cut annual oil use by 1.14 billion gallons, create 140,200 jobs and keep $4.5 billion in the regional economy.
These are among the conclusions of a recent study that outlines the benefits of a large-scale switch of central heating systems in the region from oil to wood pellets and other forms of renewable biomass. Called "A Bold Vision for 2025," it was prepared by five trade groups that include the Maine Pellet Fuels Association and the newly formed Biomass Thermal Energy Council.
Using sustainable harvest figures, the study calculated how much biomass is available each year in New England and New York. There's enough to meet three-quarters of the industry's annual heating goal, the study found. The balance could be satisfied with solar and geothermal energy.
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Wind farm towers take local turn
Manitowoc firm will build 90 steel structures for We Energies Columbia County project
Tower Tech Systems of Manitowoc will build 90 steel towers for Wisconsin's largest wind farm, as We Energies adds a "buy-local" flavor to its renewable energy project near Madison.
The Manitowoc maker of wind turbine towers will build the 262-foot tall towers for turbine maker Vestas. The turbines will be erected next year in Columbia County at the $367 million Glacier Hills Wind Park.
The move comes as European companies like Vestas and Ingeteam look to expand their domestic production of wind power components.
Ingeteam last week broke ground on a $15 million wind power generator factory in Milwaukee's Menomonee Valley.
For its part, Vestas is ramping up production of turbines, blades and towers at factories in Colorado.
But for this project, Vestas opted to work with Tower Tech Systems, a Manitowoc company that's part of the wind component firm Broadwind Energy Inc. Including factories in Texas and South Dakota, Tower Tech is the third largest producer of wind towers in North America.
The value of the contract hasn't been disclosed, but Chief Operating Officer Paul Smith said it will mean job security for employees at the sprawling Tower Tech complex near Lake Michigan.
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Natural Gas as Panacea: Dubious Path to a Green Future
Many energy experts contend natural gas is the ideal fuel as the world makes the transition to renewable energy. But since much of that gas will come from underground shale, potentially at high environmental cost, it would be far better to skip the natural gas phase and move straight to massive deployment of solar and wind power.
For several years, many voices, including Texas energy baron T. Boone Pickens, have been touting natural gas as the best energy source to form a bridge between the current fossil-fuel economy and a renewable energy future. Proponents contend that not only is natural gas a cleaner-burning fuel than coal, producing lower greenhouse gas emissions, but that reserves of natural gas are far greater than previously believed because of vast reserves trapped throughout the U.S - and around the world - in huge underground formations of shale.
Earlier this month, Britain's New Scientist magazine published an article about shale gas entitled, "Wonderfuel: Welcome to the Age of Unconventional Gas." Last month, the Wall Street Journal ran its own op-ed ode to shale gas: "Shale Gas Will Rock the World." The author, Amy Myers Jaffe - a fellow in energy studies at Rice University - wrote, "I am convinced that shale gas will revolutionize the industry - and change the world - in the coming decades." She even suggested that the abundance of natural gas in shale deposits worldwide will slow the transition to a renewable energy future.
"It may be a lot harder to persuade people to adopt green power that needs heavy subsidies when there's a cheap, plentiful fuel out there that's a lot cleaner than coal, even if gas isn't as politically popular as wind or solar," Jaffe wrote.
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20 Solar Cell Prototypes That Could Change the Future
Dye-sensitized solar cells are the low cost solar cells that could be our future -- and the results of the workshop "Sunny Memories" prove the opportunities to use them are endless.
Encouraged by the ongoing solar energy revolution, the EPFL+ECAL Lab along with major design colleges the California College for the Arts in the U.S., the Royal College of Arts in the U.K., Ecole Cantonale d'Art de Lausanne in Switzerland, and Ecole Nationale Superieure de Creation Industrielle in France asked more than 80 students to come up with ideas using these cells.
The prototypes are divided into three groups: suitable for production today (I); designs based on current state of technology that could be produced in three years (III); and designs that could be feasible in 10 years (X).
First up is O-li-o by Kenny Hopper from the California College of Arts (X). His concept is based on solar information cells for windows that could display information such as date, time, temperature, and even airline travel updates through a wireless connection.
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