Solar Homes Offer New Hope for Renewable Energy

WASHINGTON, Oct 4, 2011 (IPS) - As a light drizzle fell Saturday, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu pointed to solar houses constructed by students on the National Mall park in Washington as evidence that the U.S can compete internationally in the renewable energy market to create jobs and win "the war against climate change".

Calculate the Renewable Energy

TreeHugger turns us on to a new online tool for measuring the potential impact of your home on renewable energy numbers:  The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has created an online tool called In My Backyard (IMBY, obviously based on the NIMBY acronym). The goal is to "estimates how much electricity you can produce through solar and wind power in your own backyard." It's based on Google Maps, and while it's relatively sophisticated compared to other such tools, it is very easy to use if all you want is a rough estimate of how much wind or solar power you can expect to be able to generate.

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calculator simulation solar wind

The Countries on the Cutting Edge.............

The Countries on the Cutting Edge of Renewable Energy

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Which Renewable Energies ...........

Which Renewable Energies Do We Use Most and At What Cost?

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What Renewable Energy Sources ..........

What Renewable Energy Sources Is The World Using?

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The Countries on the Cutting Edge.............

The Countries on the Cutting Edge of Renewable Energy

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America's Energy, Where ..........

America's Energy, Where It's From and How It's Used

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Urine: The latest renewable energy source

This utilisation of hydrogen as a source of power, is one that is being extensively researched with everything from hydrogen fuel cell cars to hand held personal devices being powered by the most common element in the universe.

Obama Wants More Nuclear Power. Does that Make Sense?

Clean energy advocates may have noticed that President Obama didn't just tout solar and wind in this week's State of the Union address; he also encouraged the construction of new natural gas, clean coal, and nuclear power sites. Natural gas and clean coal aren't all that clean (that's for another column), but nuclear may be a decent option. Should we be paying more attention to it?

Targeting Gaps in the Food Supply Chain: Going Beyond Agricultural Production to Achieve Food Security

Agricultural production is only the first step in moving the world’s food from farm to fork, according to Nourishing the Planet, a project of the Worldwatch Institute. The other links in the food chain—harvesting, packaging, storing, transporting, marketing, and selling—ensure that food actually reaches consumers. Inefficiencies in these activities, rather than just low yields or poor farming techniques, are often to blame for food shortages and low prices for growers.

“Many of the farms and organizations we visited in Africa seemed to have the most success reducing hunger and poverty through efforts that had little to do with producing more crops,” said Nourishing the Planet director Danielle Nierenberg, who spent two years traveling across sub-Saharan Africa researching food chains in over 25 countries.

Global climate change: Permaculture works with, not against, ecosystems

The climate is trying to tell us something. From one of the worst droughts in Texas history, stoking unprecedented wildfires, to record precipitation in the Midwest, fueling historic flooding along the Mississippi River, to Portland's second wettest and third coldest spring on record that's delayed the growing season, extreme weather events have gotten our attention in the past year.

And although consensus is growing on the threats that global climate change pose -- from loss of habitat for tundra wildlife to crop failures the world over -- we hear few voices of reason on what to do about it. But from Oregon to West Africa, the fields of innovative farmers are abundant and more resilient than conventional fields from techniques that work with, rather than against, ecosystems -- sometimes referred to as permaculture. They're demonstrating that we can act through choices we make at the dinner table.

Human gait could soon power portable electronics

If the vision of Tom Krupenkin and J. Ashley Taylor comes to fruition, one day soon your cellphone - or just about any other portable electronic device - could be powered by simply taking a walk. In a paper appearing in the journal Nature Communications, Krupenkin and Taylor, both engineering researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, describe a new energy-harvesting technology that promises to dramatically reduce our dependence on batteries and instead capture the energy of human motion to power portable electronics.

Using waste heat from automobile exhaust

http://www.ct.gov

 With the completion of a successful prototype, engineers have made a major step toward addressing one of the leading problems in energy use around the world today -- the waste of half or more of the energy produced by cars, factories and power plants. New technology is being developed to capture and use the low-to-medium grade waste heat that's now going out the exhaust pipe of millions of automobiles, diesel generators, or being wasted by factories and electrical utilities.

The 10 Most Romantic Ecotourism Destinations

Print - The 10 Most Romantic Ecotourism Destinations - The Daily Green.

Need to Relax and Explore?

Stressed about the bad economy? Sick of trudging over ice and through biting winds? You need a vacation!

Yes, staycations are cheap and inherently green (since we don't normally consume much when we stick around our neighborhoods). But we also enjoy daydreaming about fantasy adventures. If you are still flush, wow your valentine with the experience of a lifetime. If you're like the rest of us, at least you can hope, and maybe plan, together.

The 7 Rules of Budget Travel

Print - The 7 Rules of Budget Travel - The Daily Green.

How to save money, and protect the environment, when you're on vacation

By Jeff Yeager

Think Locally, Travel Globally

The 7 Rules of Budget Travel

How to save money, and protect the environment, when you're on vacation.

By Jeff Yeager

Think Locally, Travel Globally

I'm a big believer in the popular environmental mantra: "Think Globally, Act Locally." When it comes to saving the planet, that saying is as true as it is simple.

And when I travel, my rule of thumb for keeping it green and keeping it cheap is: "Think Locally, Travel Globally." You'll usually find the most eco-friendly and genuine travel experiences when you spend less — not more — and get local, no matter where in the world you're wandering. It's all about traveling independently (not in a tour group or packaged tour) and drilling down to the local level, getting a true sense of place by experiencing it as if you live there.

Here's how:

Photo Credit: Jamie Grill/Getty Images

Guidebooks Kill

Consult a good, locally researched guidebook like those in the Lonely Planet series for basic background and logistical info before you travel, but don't use it to plan your every move, like where you'll stay, eat and hang out. By the time a guidebook recommends something, it's usually overrun with tourists (and overpriced).

Photo Credit: James Baigrie/Getty Images

Travel Without Reservations

Except for perhaps the first night or two when you're traveling overseas and going to be suffering from jetlag, avoid making advance reservations at hotels and other accommodations before you leave home. You'll generally pay a lot more for lodging reserved from overseas, and they're rarely the type of local, affordable places you can only find once you're there. Plus, advance reservations limit your ability to be spontaneous in your travels.

Photo Credit: Tom Grill/Getty Images

The "Three L's Rule" (Look for Lines of Locals)

If you're looking for a good meal or friendly place to have a beer, put away your guidebook and open up your eyes and ears. Looking for where the locals hang out and chatting it up with them is the best — and cheapest — way to travel.

Photo Credit: Krzysztof Dydynski/Getty Images

Local Transportation and Short Distances Are Best

To travel slowly, covering short distances, and staying places longer is the key to really getting a sense of place and people. Linger in places you've never heard of and where you don't see another tourist; don't plan an itinerary that's just one popular tourist destination (AKA "trap") followed by another. Taking public transportation, hiking or bicycling will give you a great opportunity to meet local people and see how they live. Plus it will save you a busload of traveler's checks.

Photo Credit: ZenShui/Frederic Cirou/Getty Images

Cheap Sleep

Americans can travel to almost anywhere in the world and pay top dollar to stay in an American-style hotel, just like the ones back home. Why even bother to travel if that's what you want? Look for locally owned, "mom and pop" places to stay, pensions and public camping facilities (sometimes free). Check out youth hostels, couch surfing and house swapping for a highly affordable, and rewarding, travel experience.

Photo Credit: Richard Cummins/Getty Images

Prepare at Least Some of Your Own Meals

Sampling the fare in local restaurants is one of the joys of travel, but you'll sell your trip short — and spend a lot more — if you don't at least occasionally pick up some groceries from a local market and prepare some of your own meals. Maybe it's just simple breakfast foods or picnic supplies. Shopping for food where the locals shop is one of the most enlightening cultural experiences I know of when you travel, and it just happens to make travel much more affordable.

Photo Credit: Jupiterimages/Getty Images

Keeping It Green When You Travel

Not surprisingly to this Green Cheapskate, a recent study commissioned by eco-friendly lodging chain Element Hotels found that 41% of the people they surveyed said that their vigilance about conserving resources is "due to the economy" (i.e. "It saves me money!"), while just 28% said it was "due to the environment." The upshot is that when people travel, their eco-conscious habits often slip; they're not as vigilant about things like turning off the lights in their hotel room, since they're not paying the electric bill. Don't leave your eco-ethics at home when you hit the road this summer, because you can't fool Mother Nature.

Jeff Yeager is the author of the book The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map to True Riches. His Website is UltimateCheapskate.com.

9 Cutting-Edge Modular Homes

Print - 9 Cutting-Edge Modular Homes - The Daily Green.

By Olivia Zaleski

perrinepod

Custom-built prefabricated homes, such as the modernist perrinepod, encourage the green value that houses should be nothing more or less than their inhabitants need. By using less space and materials, prefab homes preserve natural resources, while leaving the smallest of footprints. They are usually manufactured in a way that leaves a smaller ecological footprint than conventional on-site construction.

Photo Credit: perrinepod

17 Creative Things to Do with Phone Books

Print - 17 Creative Things to Do with Phone Books - The Daily Green.

Is it just my imagination, or are they sending out updated editions of the phone book and Yellow Pages a lot more often than they used to? When I was growing up, it seemed like we had the same phone book the whole time. I remember it, because my Uncle George — who fancied himself the Human Hulk — said he knew a trick whereby he could tear an entire phone book in half with his bare hands. It didn't quite work out that way, although he did thoroughly mangle the A-G listings.

Fase-fase Hubungan Islam dan Sains: Geografi, Geodesi, Kartografi (via ---samudera alchemist---)

numpanh share ya mas...

Pada suatu malam tanggal 24 Mei 997, pria berusia 23 tahun itu berdiri di luar kota Kath yang terletak di sungai Oxus di Asia Tengah, menunggu gerhana bulan dimulai. Ratusan mil dari sana, orang lainnya bernama Abul Wafa (w. 997 atau 998) sudah menunggu mulainya gerhana bulan yang sama di Baghdad. Kedua orang tersebut telah bersepakat menggunakan gerhana bulan sebagai sinyal waktu untuk menghitung perbedaan panjang busur antara Kath dan Baghdad. … Read More

via ---samudera alchemist---

Trash solar power?

Bigbelly Solar 

The BigBelly System Delivers Dramatic Cost Reduction while Maintaining Service Levels. The BigBelly Solar intelligent waste collection system has been designed to harness the power of the sun to help solve an expensive and messy problem: how to more efficiently manage the process of collecting solid waste. Durable and easy to use, the BigBelly system is composed of the following parts:

China’s New Solar Goal ? (Indonesian)

image by http://www.asianoffbeat.com

Laporan menunjukkan bahwa Cina  telah meningkatkan target di Tahun 2015 untuk penggunaan tenaga surya fotovoltaik (PV) menjadi 10 gigawatt (GW).  Ini berarti peningkatan target menjadi 2 kali, apabila merujuk pada Target semula pada  Rencana Pembangunan Lima Tahun (REPELITA) Tahap ke 12 (Development Plan for Renewable Energy during the 12th Five-Year Perio) yang sebesar 5 GW. Dokumen dan usulan ini telah disampaikan kepada DPR ( State Council) pada bulan Juni awal.

China’s New Solar Goal: Does a Doubled Target Mean Double Trouble?

http://www.asianoffbeat.com

Reports indicate that China is about to raise its 2015 goal for solar photovoltaic (PV) power to 10 gigawatts (GW), confirming an anonymous report that was leaked earlier this year. The target was originally set at 5 GW in the 12th Five-Year Plan released in March but has since been doubled in the newly submitted Development Plan for Renewable Energy during the 12th Five-Year Period, a document submitted to the State Council at the beginning of this month.