TameBear: Sustainable World

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:18:24 GMT

Building Green Schools:This is SO inspiring -- the students of the Sidwell Friends K-12 Middleschool in Washington D.C. talk about their LEEDS Platinum-level green building, and how it is helping contribute to a healthier environment where they live and learn: Are YOU inspired yet? Head on over to the U.S. Green Building Council's Build Green Schools web site to find out how you can make these kinds of schools a reality in your district and nationwide. [Rocky Mountain Instititute]

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:24:06 GMT

We Can Solve It: The Challenge of Fossil-Free Electricity Within Ten Years: There will be a lot of pressure in the near future to open up protected areas for oil drilling. Oil companies and oil company lobbyists benefit the most from America's addiction to oil, but in the long run, what's truly best for America? My vote is for switching to 100% clean, renewable electricity within 10 years. If you've been watching the Olympics this week, maybe you've already seen a new TV message from "The WE Campaign", illustrating this positive switch from fossil fuels to environmentally friendly renewables. Here it is again: Within ten years many more of us will be generating our own electricity in our backyards, using it to power our electric cars, and burning much much less oil, coal, and natural gas than we do now. Within ten years, these changes will have a dramatic positive impact on the health of our planet. I believe this ambitious goal -- to have fossil-free electricity within ten years -- is doable, and we can all participate in making it happen, starting today. [wecansolveit.org]

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 23:29:53 GMT

Air Car Coming to U.S. by 2010: How would you like to be getting 868 miles on a single fill-up? A startup funded by Indian car company Tata Motors plans on bringing a car powered by compressed air to the U.S. automobile market sometime in 2009 or 2010. They company, named Zero Pollution Motors, has developed a car that runs entirely on compressed air for around-town driving, and uses minimal amounts of gasoline at highway speeds. [CNET News.com]

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 21:50:49 GMT

Smart Car Sales Driven by Novelty Not Gas Milage: The two-seater Smart Car gets surprisingly poor gas milage, and initial sales appear to be based foremost on the novelty of owning such a cute little car. Looks like people are buying it for a 2nd (or 3rd? or 4th?) car for short hops around town or to pull behind their RV. Considering it's size, the Bear asks why oh why does it not get significantly better milage than other "normal" subcompacts? Reading the comments at end of the article confirms others are wondering exactly the same thing. [Wired]

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 00:42:38 GMT

Arctic Sea Ice Shrinks to Record Low: Scientists who know are saying there's 22 percent less ice covering the earth's surface than the last recorded low in September 2005. The Bear thinks that's gotta be a serious change in environment for all our friends and wild things out there at the poles. If we're not out to drown the polar bears, I hope everyone can do a little something more to reduce our impact on the planet. [Bloomberg News via TameBear Radio]

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 12:14:02 GMT

Texas Startup Says It Has Batteries Beat: The patent application from EEStor of Austin Texas claims "technologies for replacement of electrochemical batteries," and if so, they're onto something big. Many in the industry view their claims with great cynicism... but that has not dissuaded Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers from investing $3 million in the little company. [Yahoo News]

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 11:57:40 GMT

500 Miles on a Few Minutes Charge: Finally it looks like the all-electric vehicle is just around the corner. The Toronto Ontario Zenn Motor Company has teamed up with EEStor, developer of a novel energy storage product. The 100lb capacitor can be fully charged in just a few minutes, and delivers up to 500 miles of electric power travel between charges. Reducing the weight of battery storage and shortening the recharge time is a formula for success, if Zenn can actually deliver. They plan to do so later this year, or early 2008. [TameBear Radio]

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 13:40:21 GMT

Heavenly Bodies: Whenever the Bear comes across such atronomical comparisons as these, it inspires awe, tinged with a great humility at our smallness in the celestial void, and gratitude and wonder that we even exist at all. [YouTube]

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 21:10:24 GMT

Portable power from trash: There are reportedly 90 sites throughout the US where garbage is burned to produce heat and electricity. The heat is used to dry burnable biomass, and the process burns relatively cleanly (meeting California's emissions standards.) Now a "portable" system produced by AgriPower can be moved to the source of the biomass, and will burn anything from nuts to old tires. [CNET News.com]

Sun, 20 May 2007 11:41:05 GMT

Aluminum Alloy Extracts Hydrogen From Water On Demand: While cleaning some lab equipment, a Purdue University engineer inadvertently stumbles upon a new method for producing hydrogen from water. The hydrogen is generated on demand, so you only produce as much as you need, when you need it. It's possible the technique could be used to replace gasoline in cars. [What's Next In Science & Technology]

Tue, 15 May 2007 12:09:47 GMT

Peak Uranium: "Limited supplies of uranium fuel for nuclear power plants may thwart the renewed and growing interest in nuclear energy in the United States and other nations, according to an industry expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology." [Reuters News via Futurismic]

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 11:32:00 GMT

High Hopes for Pond Scum: Solix Biofuels is betting on commercial algae production. Their algae feeds on CO2 and produces oil, lots of oil. The company hopes to give soy some competition in the emerging market for renewable biofuels. [Popular Mechanics via The Speculist]

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 10:42:51 GMT

Cheap Solar Poised to Undercut Oil and Gas by Half: Within five years, solar power will be cheap enough to compete with carbon-generated electricity, says Anil Sethi, CEO of Swiss startup Flisom. The company is developing a solar film production process that they expect will drive the cost of solar panels (currently around $3-$4 per watt) down to less than $1 per watt within four years. [Telegraph]

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 12:00:57 GMT

U.S. Servers Suck More Power Than Mississippi: Power-hungry servers consumed 45 million kilowatt-hours of power in 2005 - twice the power usage of 2000. One obvious solution: solar powered servers. [CNET News.com]

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 10:43:31 GMT

Detroit's Plug-In Concepts. GM's Chevrolet Volt and Ford's HySeries Drive are plug-in electric cars that could give the hybrid Prius some stiff competition for fuel efficiency. Trouble is, Detroit's cars are so far just "concept" and won't be rolling off an assembly line for at least another four years. Big help, huh? [Wired News]

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 12:52:47 GMT

Wind Resource Off Eastern U.S. Coast Could Provide Energy for Nine States: Enough energy to supply the needs of nine states from Massachusetts to North Carolina, plus the District of Columbia--with enough left over to support a 50 percent increase in future energy demand, according to a study by researchers at the University of Delaware and Stanford University. [What's Next Network]

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 11:10:29 GMT

Doubts Can't Stop Plug-In Hybrids: It's a compelling idea -- if you have solar panels on your roof powering your house, why not plug in your car to tap some of that renewable energy. Though technical challenges remain, consumer demand suggests the emergence of alternative vehicles is inevitable. [Wired News]

Sat, 21 Oct 2006 11:59:19 GMT

Googleplex Goes Solar: The search company is partnering with EI Solutions to install solar panels on the rooftops of their Moutanin View CA campus. The 1.6 Megawatt array is expected to offset 30% of their peak energy consumption. Google already uses a lot of electricity: "The amount of electricity that will be generated is equivalent to powering about 1,000 average California homes." [Futurismic]

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 11:11:13 GMT

The American Energy Vision: A hopeful new report from the Worldwatch Institute is titled "American Energy: The Renewable Path to Energy Security". The report shows that an energy future based on abundant and clean renewable resources is not only urgently needed, but achievable. In advocating the thoughtful expansion of renewable technologies, American Energy presents a clear and practical path to end this country's troublesome addiction to fossil fuels, and in the process make headway against the equally challenging problem of global warming. The report is available in downloadable PDF format. [Worldwatch Institute]

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 10:35:33 GMT

Wind-Farm Watts: Australia is embracing renewable energy in a big way. They've just authorized construction of a $380 million 233 megawatt wind farm, enough power to meet the annual electricity needs of 133,450 homes. [Futurismic]

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 11:41:19 GMT

Generating Electricity from Photosynthetic Bacteria: Photosynthesis is the most efficient process for turning carbos into energy, and the process has been refined over thousands of years of evolution. Now University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers are studying ways to generate electricity by feeding a species of photosynthetic bacteria a steady diet of sunshine and wastewater. [What's Next In Science & Technology]

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 10:55:44 GMT

Schwarzenegger Signs Solar Law: California will take the lead in producing renewable energy with a bill that aims to produce 3000 clean megawatts of power by 2018, by encouraging installion of a million rooftop solar panels across the state. That's equivalent to five pollution-free power plants. [Red Herring via Futurismic]

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 01:30:27 GMT

What If They Gave a War...?: Writer Tony Long asks why Americans aren't marching in the streets to protest our government's ongoing military incursions and the escalating repression of civil liberties. "By the principles established by the Nuremberg Tribunal and international law, our president is a war criminal." Does anybody out there have a conscience anymore? [Wired News]

Sat, 19 Aug 2006 11:13:58 GMT

Trend Toward Home Backup Electric Generators: Standby electric power generators for homes are on the rise in areas where grid electricity outtages can last for hours or days. These are not the small noisy gas-guzzling backup generators... homeowners who can afford it are installing whole-home systems to generate as much as 40 kilowatts from propane, natural gas, or photovoltaics. The systems can be costly, but in some affluent neighborhoods they are becoming status symbols. [Christian Science Monitor via FuturePundit]

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 13:24:40 GMT

A Fillup from Liquid Coal: A brief article with lots of comment describes a bit of the history behind the process of extracting diesel fuel from coal, and a few of the companies currently involved. [Wired Blog]

Sun, 06 Aug 2006 11:56:28 GMT

Quantum Leap: Fortune speculates on the future of computing in this imaginative piece based on recent developments in quantum computing. Their take: it's all closer than you may think, and they point to Freescale's commercial production of magnetic random access memory (MRAM) as first evidence. The quantum effect known as "Spintronics" in Freescale's MRAM will first be used in cameras for instant storage of images. Later it will be used for instant startup on laptops and other computers, and eventually will be used for extremely fast and complex calculation. [The Speculist]

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 16:53:54 GMT

Toyota Plugs In: The automaker says it will focus on developing a plug-in gas/electric hybrid car. Owners will be able to recharge the car batteries by plugging into an electrical outlet. New models expected to begin appearing in January. Toyota also aims to cut the hybrid premium by half. [Wired News]

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 12:27:46 GMT

Your Eco-Car Options: Flex-fueled, diesel, or hybrid, Wired weighs the options of existing carbon-cutting tech. [Wired News]

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 10:22:13 GMT

Greening of the US Home Construction Industry: Increasing energy costs are providing a market incentive for the US construction Industry to engage in more energy-efficient building practices. An estimated $10 billion of "green buildings" are in the process of construction this year in the United States. (National Public Radio audio.) [NPR.org via theWatt: Energy News and Discussion]

Sun, 04 Jun 2006 11:56:49 GMT

Biotown, USA: The town of Reynolds, Indiana -- population 533 -- is also home to some 150,000 hogs. Some smart state officials have conviced Reynolds to become a showcase "biotown", generating all their electricity from biogas produced by the decomposition of pig manure. Looks like they're planning to power municipal vehicles on ethanol or biodiesel too. [theWatt: Energy News and Discussion]

Sun, 04 Jun 2006 11:25:51 GMT

Key To "An Inconvenient Truth": Apple's "Keynote" is the presentation workhorse behind Al Gore's highly acclaimed documentary on global climate change. Keynote's ability to import, sequence, and transition extremely high resolution images and video clips for display on a 15x45 foot screen is what made it so appealing and useful for this film project. [Apple Hot News via MyAppleMenu]

Wed, 31 May 2006 12:15:26 GMT

Affordable Energy Can Solve Water Shortages: Some very interesting back-of-the-envelope calculations regarding energy costs for production of fresh water from salt water, and the economic implications of supply/demand. [FuturePundit]

Wed, 31 May 2006 11:49:07 GMT

New Solutions for World's Energy Woes: Approximately 2 billion people have no access to electricity. They do without many of the amenities the rest of us take for granted: air conditioning, refrigeration, television, indoor lighting, and pumps to supply drinking water. New approaches to energy production combine simple technologies -- solar heat, steam turbines, electric generators, hydrogen electrolizers - to make affordable and easily maintainable home energy systems for use in the poorest countries. [What's Next In Science & Technology]

Sat, 27 May 2006 03:54:34 GMT

Solar Powered: In this followup to last year's "Preparing for Solar" episode, the Bear interviews webmaster Peter Oakley to learn more about the solar electric power system that was installed at his home office this Spring. Pete describes how solar panels work, the components of the system, interconnection with the electric utility grid, battery backup, environmental reasons for going solar, total cost and payback. A very informative episode for everyone interested in reducing their ecological footprint. [TameBear Radio 2006]

Thu, 18 May 2006 11:53:02 GMT

Power Up With Magnetic Bacteria: A high school student's science fair project demonstrates a unique new renewable energy source with zero emissions, and points to a future of bo-friendly underwater power plants. [Wired News]

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 11:57:30 GMT

Green Power Plants with Algae: Two companies are working hard on technology to reduce CO2 and nitrous oxide emissions from power plants by routing the exhast through algae farms. The algae scrubs the emissions and can then be processed to make biodiesel and ethanol for sale at a profit. [Christian Science Monitor via Futurismic]

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 22:10:07 GMT

Windmill Opponent Golisano Flips: One of the biggest opponents of wind farms in upstate New York has changed sides and is now encouraging municipalities to build their own wind power cooperatives. "It's your wind," billionaire Tom Golisano tells the crowds at town meetings, "It should be your money." [Wired]

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 11:21:36 GMT

Falling Carbon Fiber Costs Key to High Car Fuel Efficiency: Advances aimed at replacing most of the steel in cars with lightweight carbon fiber will lead to higher gas milage. A good example: Loremo of Germany makes a very light weight aerodynamic two-cylinder diesel car that gets over 150 miles to the gallon! [Oak Ridge National Laboratory via FuturePundit]

Thu, 09 Mar 2006 12:33:33 GMT

The Many Faces of Solar Power: Browse this photo-essay of several companies that are using a variety of approaches to cut the cost of PV cells, develop new materials, and produce new products to make solar electricity more cost-competitive. [CNET News.com]

Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:33:37 GMT

Plug Pulled on Renewable Energy Gurus: In the "Words vs. Action" category, this story about layoffs at the National Renewable Energy Lab demonstrates the sharp contrast between Bush's State of the Union rhetoric and reality. 31 experts in the industry were dismissed just seven days after Bush's "addicted to oil" speech in which he announced a so-called "Advanced Energy Initiative." [Denver Post via Renew Energy Blog]