Category Archives: Renewable Energy

Adam Williams in Renewable Energy 727 days ago

Solar tree installations by Ross Lovegrove are sprouting in cities across Europe. The scene above is in Milan. Next will come Venice, at the Biennale dell’ Architettura. The designs more resemble bouquets of flowers, with the petals being lined with LED bulbs and photovoltaic cells. Related post: Solar Necktie Powers Young Professionals via Core77

Shirley Siluk Gregory in Renewable Energy 728 days ago

What a great idea: incorporating solar energy not only into windows and roofs, but into the building blocks of structures themselves … as in bricks. The solar-powered brick, which has a solar cell embedded inside it, could be used to provide decorative or safety lighting, or even illuminate rural airplane runways, according to San Antonio-based… Read More…

Jennifer Lance in Renewable Energy 731 days ago

On the Big Island’s Hamakua Coast, the 24-megawatt Hu Honua Bioenergy Facility will convert locally grown biomass into electricity.  95% of the area’s residents signed a petition in support of converting the coal burning plant into a biomass facility. The converted facility is expected to stimulate local agricultural business, prevent tens of thousands of tons… Read More…

Kelli Best-Oliver in Renewable Energy 736 days ago

The Queen of England has made her Scottish estate, Balmoral, energy-independent by installing a small hydroelectric plant.  The plant, near a stream on her estate, not only fuels her estate, but 1,000 area homes through net-metering.  Balmoral is no stranger to renewables.  The Queen had a water turbine as early as the 1920′s to provide… Read More…

Adam Williams in Fun / Offbeat 738 days ago

Iowa State University has figured out a way for the youngest and/or hippest generation of go-getters to power their iPods while maintaining that business professional look: solar neckties. Via: Gagdets Blog News

Timothy B. Hurst in Renewable Energy 747 days ago

Check out this animation of solar islands: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/D1XyR3YOVZQ&hl=en&fs=1]

Adam Williams in Renewable Energy 749 days ago

The Environmental News Network shines a light on recent findings by the Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Asphalt, and all it’s heat-catching abilities, can be turned into a renewable energy source. From the article: “Through asphalt, the researchers are developing a solar collector that could turn roads and parking lots into ubiquitous—and inexpensive—sources of electricity and hot… Read More…

Timothy B. Hurst in Renewable Energy 850 days ago

Cool looking contraption, huh? What you’re looking at is Finavera Renewables’ latest project in scalable wave power technology. If you think that picture is pretty cool, you’ll enjoy the animation: [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/r89xQxZsaN8" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /] Photo: U.S. Minerals Management Service

mcmilker in Renewable Energy 864 days ago

Nicknamed, the “Dragon Power Station”, a new apparatus at the port harnesses energy from big rigs. Still in test stage, the new technology is expected to produce 5000-7000 kilowatts per day in this one location. Photo courtesy: AEST, Inc. http://www.aesti.com

Timothy B. Hurst in Renewable Energy 871 days ago

I took this short video of a new, small vertical axis turbine at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO. Despite the fact that it sounds quite windy in the video, it really wasn’t. [try to ignore the sounds coming from my very excited dog]. Running time: 50 seconds. [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/uW7ugTnViOw" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]… Read More…

Jennifer Lance in Renewable Energy 878 days ago

If your trees are shading your neighbor’s solar panels, you could be fined $1,000 a day. The 1978 California Solar Shade Act deems shading trees a nuisance. In Sunnyvale, CA, Prius driving Carolynn Bissett and Richard Treanor were convicted under the law after electric car driving neighbor Mark Vargas complained . Source: New York Times… Read More…

Timothy B. Hurst in Renewable Energy 879 days ago

Watch this excellent animation of how the new SeaGen project in Northern Ireland built by Marine Current Turbines will work. Transport of the units began a few weeks back and the installation of SeaGen should be completed shortly. [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.marineturbines.com/swf/video_f8_317x317_v1.swf?videoPath1=http://www.marineturbines.com/uploads/documents/seagenanimation_81458.flv" width="317" height="317" wmode="transparent" /]

Jennifer Lance in Fun / Offbeat 881 days ago

Bikini season is almost here. How about a photovoltaic bathing suit to charge your iPod? For a more practical look at green bikini options, please visit Green Option’s newest blog Feel Good Style. Source: Gizmodo

Jennifer Lance in Renewable Energy 884 days ago

I guess when diesel costs $4.29 a gallon, as it does here in Northern California, money really does grow on trees in the form of the diesel tree!  The Brazilian Copaifera langsdorfii can be tapped like a rubber tree, to yield natural diesel fuel. Source: Treehugger 

Timothy B. Hurst in Renewable Energy 897 days ago

Very short and very simple. I am very envious. [kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/EcycDAJc858" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Jennifer Lance in Renewable Energy 898 days ago

Crave Brothers Dairy Farm has teamed up with Clear Horizons to run a computer-controlled anaerobic digestion system that generates electricity—enough to run their rural Wisconsin farm and cheese plant and power up to 120 homes from the organic waste of their 750 Holsteins. Source: Mothering.com 

Timothy B. Hurst in Renewable Energy 899 days ago

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/I-4vekxPnVQ" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Clayton B. Cornell in Renewable Energy 909 days ago

It just looks like a pile of trash to most of us, but a new cellulosic ethanol facility may start making a renewable fuel from cardboard and other wood wastes. See the story here. Photo Credit

Gavin Hudson in Fun / Offbeat 929 days ago

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/vAPf9V3_li0" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /] Guys, if you’ve ever had trouble focusing on the issue of peak oil, try watching this video from Oil Release. Then, for a more history-focused video, or to cool down, you can watch this video.

Gavin Hudson in Other Green Topics 947 days ago

If you think wind farms are an eyesore, consider the alternative. Photo: Wind Farm, Coal Plant

Gavin Hudson in Renewable Energy 949 days ago

If you haven’t seen this video, you definitely should. [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/2mTLO2F_ERY" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Michelle Bennett in Business 970 days ago

Growing by an impressive average of 48 percent each year since 2002, PV production has been doubling every two years, making it the world’s fastest-growing energy source. (More on this at Environmental News Network) (Image courtesy of 24volt.co.uk)

Shirley Siluk Gregory in Renewable Energy 976 days ago

Energy researcher Charles Hall’s balloon graph indicates we might be seriously overestimating our potential to shift to an oil-free economy while maintaining current levels of energy consumption. The graph plots energy return on investment — that is, the amount of energy it takes to produce different types of energy — (vertical) against total energy produced… Read More…

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg in Renewable Energy 979 days ago

Tractors… no. Buttons…. no. Solar panels… oh, yeah. “In Holmes County, Ohio, home to the world’s largest Amish community, an estimated 80% of Amish families now have photovoltaic panels.” Image: New Scientist Environmental Blog (via peacefulbean at Stumbleupon)

Michelle Bennett in Other Green Topics 986 days ago

The burgeoning U.S. ethanol industry is looking longingly at existing oil product pipelines for transporting the alternative fuel, an idea almost unthinkable a few years ago because of contamination fears… Pipelines are the cheapest way to transport any motor fuel. But ethanol producers have been limited to trucks and trains to send fuel from Midwest… Read More…