Wouldn't it be great if we are able to produce our very own eco-friendly energy supply? If we are able to do this, we do not need to pay electric bills or gasoline any longer for our vehicles. Whilst we can purchase some of the actual equipment, the remainder will have to be done on our own.
Take solar or wind power for instance. We already know the way to funnel as well as make it. In the event that you want to make one, do some research online and then build the system yourself.
Solar Power
To have solar power, you will need to purchase an inverter, electric battery, charge controller, solar power panels, a few cables as well as support structure. The only real difference with wind energy is that you'll require a fan. After you have everything you need, you are able to put it all together.
If you're not really skillful, you'll be pleased to know that some companies sell the whole system. When you purchase it from them and having it set up by their experts, you're certain that there won't be any kind of problems the moment you switch it on.
Before you purchase the actual materials or the actual system, make sure you possess a flat area that's about one hundred square feet approximately since it occupies much space.
For those who do not have the space or the budget to make use of these two energy resources, an additional option would be to create your own biofuels.
Biofuels
Biofuels are used in several countries and they obtain it from harvesting sugar, corn, along with other crops. Fortunately, you don't need a farm to produce it because you may also make your own using some recycled waste.
A great example of this is vegetable oil that we use for cooking. In order to turn this into a biofuel, we first filter it by warming up the liquid after which filtering this with a coffee filter. The next thing is to get rid of the water also by boiling it once again at 100 degrees for a short period of time.
We need to know the quantity of lye present in the vegetable oil and we do this with a process referred to as titration. When we are done with that, we now blend sodium hydroxide to produce sodium methoxide.
The procedure of transforming used vegetable oil before it becomes a biofuel takes quite awhile and it must be heated without interruption. This is accomplished so the fuel we produce is pure and only when this is accomplished we give it time to cool.
The amount of biofuel we make after all the work varies however you'll have an idea of just how much you have produced because this is the one you see floating at the top. If there's still some glycerin present, filter it once again. From there, you already have your own backyard biofuel that you can use and even sell to people who are just as worried about the environment as you are.
By making our very own green energy sources, we make ourselves less dependent on fuel in its different forms to power our heater, house or automobile. Why don't a lot of people do it? Well simply because they do not have the time to make it and prefer to rely on someone else to get it done on their behalf.
View the original article here
Thursday, 13 January 2011
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
Obama Hypes;Green Energy Plant That Shifting Operations
U.S. President Barack Obama shakes hands with employees as he tours a North Carolina manufacturing facility of energy efficient LED lights, Cree Inc., in Raleigh-Durham, June 13, 2011. From L-R are: Obama, Matthew Rose, CEO of GE Jeffrey Immelt and Chairman and CEO of Cree, Inc. Charles M. Swoboda. (REUTERS/Larry Downing)
Obama is traveling to North Carolina today to plug another green energy company. The company received $39 million in tax credits and at least $6 million in grants from the Department of Energy. Cree makes LED lighting products.
And, it’s shifting operations to China.
The Daily Caller reported:
Obama is traveling to North Carolina today to plug another green energy company. The company received $39 million in tax credits and at least $6 million in grants from the Department of Energy. Cree makes LED lighting products.
And, it’s shifting operations to China.
The Daily Caller reported:
President Barack Obama will visit the North Carolina-based Cree LED Light Company Monday to tour the plant and meet with his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness to discuss job creation and policies to spur economic growth. But Cree, a major recipient of Recovery Act funds, may be sending that money straight to China.Experts say that Obama’s visit today highlights his failed economic policies.
At the very least, its CEO, Chuck Swoboda, has a very China-centered strategy that involves building a new plant overseas, two facts that the Republican National Committee plans to highlight Monday morning prior to the president’s visit. Cree received a $39 million as an Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit from the Recovery Act.
The company began developing clean energy technology, hired a few more hundred workers, and the administration touted it as a “true American success story” on the White House Web site. Then in late 2010, the company opened its first plant in Huizhou City,China. That made Cree the first global LED company to locate a manufacturing plant in China…
“This is just another example of an administration that talks about an economy that has turned around while ignoring what is happening to American families who are struggling to find jobs, pay higher food and gas prices and are dealing with the decline of their home value,” one Republican source told The Daily Caller.
“It’s ironic that Obama’s jobs panel is meeting at the headquarters of a company that received millions of dollars of taxpayer money. Rising unemployment is evidence that Obama’s clean energy plan did not work as he had hoped, yet the president is stubbornly adhering to his fantasy of creating a clean energy economy,” said Tom Borelli, Ph.D., director of the National Center’s Free Enterprise Project.View the original article here
“The failure of Obama’s job’s panel is really not surprising since the group is packed with green energy and cap-and-trade cheerleaders such as GE CEO Jeff Immelt, green energy venture capitalist John Doerr, DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman and NextEra Energy CEO Lewis Hay,” added Tom Borelli.
Saturday, 8 January 2011
Green Energy PR - Business
For companies of the environmentally friendly persuasion, it's tempting to want to shout about those efforts from the rooftops in hopes of attracting positive attention. That can be a great move - as long as it's done correctly. Green energy PR is a specialty honed by many communication professionals who are well-equipped to help your business make the most of your environmental friendliness initiatives.
Some of those professionals have made a career out of green energy PR, while others have worked for organizations that inadvertently helped them develop the specialty because of in-house environmental friendliness initiatives.
Lots of interesting sustainable energy projects are going on around the world right now. In New York, for example, there's work being done to reach the goal of having 30 percent of all energy used statewide come from renewable sources. All over the country, schools are switching to more environmentally friendly bulbs and reworking policies to ensure that lights are turned off when they're not being used. Schools with the resources to do so are even installing the kind of lights that switch off automatically when motion sensors don't detect anyone in the room. Green roofing is also becoming more and more popular, especially on new buildings.
The reason it's important to have a professional involved in your green energy PR is because it's easy to cross the line from appropriate to too much. Making your organization sound greener than it is is a practice known as "greenwashing," and people are developing a keener eye for it - especially as so many organizations seek credit for their green initiatives without also seeking the counsel of a green energy PR professional. The public can be quite harsh when it suspects that an entity is taking more credit for environmental friendliness than it deserves. For example - large corporations that make a big deal when they put a green roof on a new building, or when one facility out of a thousand gets an Energy Star rating, can be accused of "greenwashing." And that's the danger of promoting such initiatives without the counsel of someone experienced with green energy PR.
That's not to say that even those businesses don't deserve credit. Every little bit helps when it comes to conserving natural resources. The point is to illustrate the importance of seeking that credit with the finesse and expertise that a communication professional can provide.
A communication consultant with experience in green energy PR can help you find the right balance - drawing positive attention to your environmental friendliness efforts in a truthful and sustainable manner.
For more information visit to http://www.makovsky.com/
Kevin Waddel is a free lance writer. To get more information about Public relations, Public Relations New York, Green Energy PR and Health Public Relations visit http://www.makovsky.com/
View the original article here
Some of those professionals have made a career out of green energy PR, while others have worked for organizations that inadvertently helped them develop the specialty because of in-house environmental friendliness initiatives.
Lots of interesting sustainable energy projects are going on around the world right now. In New York, for example, there's work being done to reach the goal of having 30 percent of all energy used statewide come from renewable sources. All over the country, schools are switching to more environmentally friendly bulbs and reworking policies to ensure that lights are turned off when they're not being used. Schools with the resources to do so are even installing the kind of lights that switch off automatically when motion sensors don't detect anyone in the room. Green roofing is also becoming more and more popular, especially on new buildings.
The reason it's important to have a professional involved in your green energy PR is because it's easy to cross the line from appropriate to too much. Making your organization sound greener than it is is a practice known as "greenwashing," and people are developing a keener eye for it - especially as so many organizations seek credit for their green initiatives without also seeking the counsel of a green energy PR professional. The public can be quite harsh when it suspects that an entity is taking more credit for environmental friendliness than it deserves. For example - large corporations that make a big deal when they put a green roof on a new building, or when one facility out of a thousand gets an Energy Star rating, can be accused of "greenwashing." And that's the danger of promoting such initiatives without the counsel of someone experienced with green energy PR.
That's not to say that even those businesses don't deserve credit. Every little bit helps when it comes to conserving natural resources. The point is to illustrate the importance of seeking that credit with the finesse and expertise that a communication professional can provide.
A communication consultant with experience in green energy PR can help you find the right balance - drawing positive attention to your environmental friendliness efforts in a truthful and sustainable manner.
For more information visit to http://www.makovsky.com/
Kevin Waddel is a free lance writer. To get more information about Public relations, Public Relations New York, Green Energy PR and Health Public Relations visit http://www.makovsky.com/
View the original article here
Oregon green energy tax breaks face sweeping changes, cutbacks
Jamie Francis/The OregonianBig wind farm would no longer get Oregon tax subsidies under a bill that dramatically changes the state's green energy incentives.SALEM -- Oregon's practice of channeling ever higher sums of taxpayer dollars into big wind farms and other green energy projects appears to be coming to an end in favor of thriftier and more targeted conservation incentives.
A bill introduced Thursday at the Legislature would eliminate the controversial, free-spending Business Energy Tax Credit and replace it with a series of smaller and far more limited tax breaks.
If adopted in its current form -- and the proposal seemed to gain instant momentum -- the bill could save the state hundreds of millions of dollars. It also could signal a broader cultural shift at the Legislature, which has struggled in recent years to trim even the smallest tax breaks.
"It really addresses that uncontrolled growth, that uncontrolled balloon," said Rep. Jules Bailey, D-Portland, who helped draft the changes contained in House Bill 3671. "It helps us move to a clean energy economy but without that runaway spending."
Problems with the tax credits, including their explosive cost to the state, have been the subject of a number of investigations by The Oregonian. Last year, lawmakers established some caps but largely left the incentives intact.
The latest bill calls for a sweeping restructuring of the subsidies that were championed by former Gov. Ted Kulongoski. One legislative staff member referred to the bill as "a type of euthanasia for the existing BETC."
As written, the bill would stop the practice of subsidizing half the construction cost of wind and solar energy developers, who receive tens of millions of dollars worth of tax credits. It also would stop the long-running policy of giving state tax rebates to consumers who buy energy efficient appliances and hybrid cars, and to businesses that replace old lights with modern energy efficient ones.
Furthermore, it would phase out the subsidies that gave free or discounted bus passes to everyone from Portland high school students to Nike employees.
"We need to use transit to get kids to school, I get that," said Rep. Vicki Berger, R-Salem, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Tax Credits, which is working on the bill. "This is the wrong way to pay for it."
The bill does not affect the tens of millions of dollars in state tax subsidies for companies such as SolarWorld and SoloPower that manufacture alternative energy components. That program, viewed more as a way to attract jobs and capital to Oregon rather than as a way to save energy, sunsets in 2014 and will be reviewed then.
Nor does the bill cut off tax credits for wind, solar, wave and other alternative energy projects that already qualified under the current rules. As a result, the state is still on the hook for between $100 million and $150 million a year well into the future as those projects are built and the companies use their credits.
In broad terms, the bill allows the Business Energy Tax Credit to expire, but creates three new categories of conservation programs that qualify for tax breaks and puts a lid on how much the state can spend on them. Spending on energy generation would be capped at $1.5 million a year, vastly lower than the millions currently spent. The other two, conservation and transportation, would be capped at $20 million a year and $10 million a year, respectively.
Notice of the changes caught many by surprise and sent a stream of lobbyists into the committee's packed hearing room to plead to keep the tax credits flowing and warn that businesses already hard hit by the recession would suffer.
Lincoln Cannon, who represents the Oregon Forest Industries Council, urged the committee to leave tax incentives for biomass energy intact. It's an emerging industry that still needs help to get going, he said.
The bill extends tax credits for biomass but greatly reduces their value.
"You guys have to make hard decisions," Cannon said. "For better or worse, there will be consequences."
Sen. Mark Hass, D-Beaverton, said he sees a marked shift in the way the Legislature handles tax breaks and incentives. In 2009, lawmakers agreed to add sunset clauses to all tax giveaways.
"The tables have been turned," Hass said. In the past, it was incumbent on lawmakers to make the case that a tax break was too expensive or no longer useful. And it required a three-fifths vote in both chambers to kill a tax break.
Now, he says, those who get the breaks must prove their worth, or they go way.
"It's really remarkable," Hass said. "It's just a dramatic cultural change."
-- Harry Esteve
View the original article here
A bill introduced Thursday at the Legislature would eliminate the controversial, free-spending Business Energy Tax Credit and replace it with a series of smaller and far more limited tax breaks.
If adopted in its current form -- and the proposal seemed to gain instant momentum -- the bill could save the state hundreds of millions of dollars. It also could signal a broader cultural shift at the Legislature, which has struggled in recent years to trim even the smallest tax breaks.
"It really addresses that uncontrolled growth, that uncontrolled balloon," said Rep. Jules Bailey, D-Portland, who helped draft the changes contained in House Bill 3671. "It helps us move to a clean energy economy but without that runaway spending."
Problems with the tax credits, including their explosive cost to the state, have been the subject of a number of investigations by The Oregonian. Last year, lawmakers established some caps but largely left the incentives intact.
The latest bill calls for a sweeping restructuring of the subsidies that were championed by former Gov. Ted Kulongoski. One legislative staff member referred to the bill as "a type of euthanasia for the existing BETC."
As written, the bill would stop the practice of subsidizing half the construction cost of wind and solar energy developers, who receive tens of millions of dollars worth of tax credits. It also would stop the long-running policy of giving state tax rebates to consumers who buy energy efficient appliances and hybrid cars, and to businesses that replace old lights with modern energy efficient ones.
Furthermore, it would phase out the subsidies that gave free or discounted bus passes to everyone from Portland high school students to Nike employees.
"We need to use transit to get kids to school, I get that," said Rep. Vicki Berger, R-Salem, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Tax Credits, which is working on the bill. "This is the wrong way to pay for it."
The bill does not affect the tens of millions of dollars in state tax subsidies for companies such as SolarWorld and SoloPower that manufacture alternative energy components. That program, viewed more as a way to attract jobs and capital to Oregon rather than as a way to save energy, sunsets in 2014 and will be reviewed then.
Nor does the bill cut off tax credits for wind, solar, wave and other alternative energy projects that already qualified under the current rules. As a result, the state is still on the hook for between $100 million and $150 million a year well into the future as those projects are built and the companies use their credits.
In broad terms, the bill allows the Business Energy Tax Credit to expire, but creates three new categories of conservation programs that qualify for tax breaks and puts a lid on how much the state can spend on them. Spending on energy generation would be capped at $1.5 million a year, vastly lower than the millions currently spent. The other two, conservation and transportation, would be capped at $20 million a year and $10 million a year, respectively.
Notice of the changes caught many by surprise and sent a stream of lobbyists into the committee's packed hearing room to plead to keep the tax credits flowing and warn that businesses already hard hit by the recession would suffer.
Lincoln Cannon, who represents the Oregon Forest Industries Council, urged the committee to leave tax incentives for biomass energy intact. It's an emerging industry that still needs help to get going, he said.
The bill extends tax credits for biomass but greatly reduces their value.
"You guys have to make hard decisions," Cannon said. "For better or worse, there will be consequences."
Sen. Mark Hass, D-Beaverton, said he sees a marked shift in the way the Legislature handles tax breaks and incentives. In 2009, lawmakers agreed to add sunset clauses to all tax giveaways.
"The tables have been turned," Hass said. In the past, it was incumbent on lawmakers to make the case that a tax break was too expensive or no longer useful. And it required a three-fifths vote in both chambers to kill a tax break.
Now, he says, those who get the breaks must prove their worth, or they go way.
"It's really remarkable," Hass said. "It's just a dramatic cultural change."
-- Harry Esteve
View the original article here
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Alex Salmond green energy policy will double power bills
Alex Salmond’s public attacks on Scottish Power’s price rises have been undermined when a leading expert warned the SNP’s energy policy will lead to household bills doubling within a decade.
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Households will have to deal with even bigger increases in energy bills this year if all six big suppliers follow the lead set by Scottish Power. [!] Report this news to staff Processing your request, Please wait.... Report as:
Finance Secretary John Swinney seeks an urgent meeting with Scottish Power over energy price increases. Report this news to staff Processing your request, Please wait.... Report as: Invalid Contents Broken link Privacy Violation Inappropriate Contents Other Write in Words:
Energy bills could rise by almost £200 per household this year if all six big suppliers follow the lead set by Scottish Power. Report this news to staff Processing your request, Please wait.... Report as: Invalid Contents Broken link Privacy
Suppliers are set to squeeze an extra £3.6 billion a year out of families if they follow Scottish Power’s lead and increase bills. So, what’s behind the increases and how can you fight back, like the Rowlands (pictured)? [!] Report this news to staff Processing your request, Please
Every household was supposed to receive an annual energy statement from its supplier by the start of this year. Have you received one? I haven’t, neither has any of my colleagues, writes Tony Hazell. [!] Report this news to staff Processing your request, Please wait....
Ministers plan an abrupt change of policy in an effort to rescue tens of thousands of jobs and billions of pounds of investment promised by Britain’s solar energy industry, which are threatened by Treasury cuts. [!] Report this news to staff Processing your request, Please wait....
Alex Salmond has made an unprecedented personal attack on one of Scotland’s most senior judges by arguing that his rulings were allowing the “vilest people on the planet” to win compensation from the taxpayer. [!] Report this news to staff Processing your request, Please wait....
View the original article here
Processing your request, Please wait....
Households will have to deal with even bigger increases in energy bills this year if all six big suppliers follow the lead set by Scottish Power. [!] Report this news to staff Processing your request, Please wait.... Report as:
Finance Secretary John Swinney seeks an urgent meeting with Scottish Power over energy price increases. Report this news to staff Processing your request, Please wait.... Report as: Invalid Contents Broken link Privacy Violation Inappropriate Contents Other Write in Words:
Energy bills could rise by almost £200 per household this year if all six big suppliers follow the lead set by Scottish Power. Report this news to staff Processing your request, Please wait.... Report as: Invalid Contents Broken link Privacy
Suppliers are set to squeeze an extra £3.6 billion a year out of families if they follow Scottish Power’s lead and increase bills. So, what’s behind the increases and how can you fight back, like the Rowlands (pictured)? [!] Report this news to staff Processing your request, Please
Every household was supposed to receive an annual energy statement from its supplier by the start of this year. Have you received one? I haven’t, neither has any of my colleagues, writes Tony Hazell. [!] Report this news to staff Processing your request, Please wait....
Ministers plan an abrupt change of policy in an effort to rescue tens of thousands of jobs and billions of pounds of investment promised by Britain’s solar energy industry, which are threatened by Treasury cuts. [!] Report this news to staff Processing your request, Please wait....
Alex Salmond has made an unprecedented personal attack on one of Scotland’s most senior judges by arguing that his rulings were allowing the “vilest people on the planet” to win compensation from the taxpayer. [!] Report this news to staff Processing your request, Please wait....
View the original article here
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Green energy freaks: will you complain that alternative energy
So in the future when oil starts to run out and green energy is actually efficient huge green energy businesses will emerge much like OPEC or other big oil companies. will you demonize these huge green energy businesses or is it ok because it's "green"? you libtards love to hate big oil so let's see if you will still hate it when it's big wind/solar.
I bet you won't say a word. just like you don't complain about the war anymore now that it's a democrat running the show.
We are interested in the future. We acknowledge that oil and gas are going to run out. We are angry that billions in taxpayer money is going to big oil and gas that are profiting in the billions. if green energy companies are making money on their own then we will not want them subsidized anymore. We care about this Earth that we all share and the effects humans and the industrialized society are having on her.
Can't happen, because of the distribution of energy production it's not possible for companies to charge you for the wind that's blowing. That's the main reason Republicans fight so hard against green energy, because they don't want individuals having access to means of independent production.
Solar panels are already at grid parity in southern California. That's with no subsidies for alternatives and tons of oil subsidies.
Subsidizing a mature oil industry is throwing our money away, eventually you have to subsidize the future if you want to move forward.
Id rather just end the war, I haven't built a windmill yet, that's probably something the power company can bill me for later.
Also, vote for Ron Paul.
All that anger is going to eat you up.
Green energy don't work like that. It's designed so you harness the wind or sun which is free. That's why "big business" don't want it, they can't rob you.
Not complaining about anyone being too rich, personally. getting rich over killing the planet, that is a problem for me.
And let's make sure that the pay back all of that subsidy money with interest. it will not happen in 100 years.
I'm too busy hugging trees, to care.
Green energy freaks: will you complain that alternative energy companies are too rich?
View the original article here
I bet you won't say a word. just like you don't complain about the war anymore now that it's a democrat running the show.
We are interested in the future. We acknowledge that oil and gas are going to run out. We are angry that billions in taxpayer money is going to big oil and gas that are profiting in the billions. if green energy companies are making money on their own then we will not want them subsidized anymore. We care about this Earth that we all share and the effects humans and the industrialized society are having on her.
Can't happen, because of the distribution of energy production it's not possible for companies to charge you for the wind that's blowing. That's the main reason Republicans fight so hard against green energy, because they don't want individuals having access to means of independent production.
Solar panels are already at grid parity in southern California. That's with no subsidies for alternatives and tons of oil subsidies.
Subsidizing a mature oil industry is throwing our money away, eventually you have to subsidize the future if you want to move forward.
Id rather just end the war, I haven't built a windmill yet, that's probably something the power company can bill me for later.
Also, vote for Ron Paul.
All that anger is going to eat you up.
Green energy don't work like that. It's designed so you harness the wind or sun which is free. That's why "big business" don't want it, they can't rob you.
Not complaining about anyone being too rich, personally. getting rich over killing the planet, that is a problem for me.
And let's make sure that the pay back all of that subsidy money with interest. it will not happen in 100 years.
I'm too busy hugging trees, to care.
Green energy freaks: will you complain that alternative energy companies are too rich?
View the original article here
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Top Ten Green Energy : Good News Stories Informed Comment
1. Environmentalists and peace advocates are hoping that cooperation on solar energy projects can help foster peace between Israelis and Palestinians. What this article doesn’t say is that such cooperation might also allow the two sides to avoid future conflicts over resources. The gas fields off the coast of Israel and Gaza could become an object of competition. And there is a looming water crisis that could drive conflict, which might be averted by solar-powered water purification plants. Green energy can also possibly avert the worst impact on the Middle East of global climate change, which will hit Israelis and Palestinians disproprotionately.
2. Saudi Arabia plans to become, well, the Saudi Arabia of solar energy production. Plans are being made to stretch power cables to Egypt, where the population of 82 million is hungry for energy. While Egypt has great solar potential of its own, it is oil-rich Saudi Arabia that has the spare cash to invest at the moment in solar installations. And few places on earth have more sunlight and less flora and fauna than the Kingdom’s Empty Quarter. (Saudi and other plans for nuclear plants may have been muted by the Fukushima disaster).
3. The photovoltaic plant at Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates not only powers a major research facility in the city but exports extra power to the UAE grid. AME Info writes, “Masdar Power is currently constructing the 100MW Shams One, one of the largest concentrated solar power plants of its kind in the world and the largest in the Middle East. Located at Madinat Zayed, 120km southwest of Abu Dhabi city, the project, is on schedule for completion towards the end of 2012.”
4. In Turkey, GE is pioneering with a half-gigawatt hybrid power plant that combines wind, solar and natural gas.
5. There have been “ferocious” cost reductions in the price of solar energy. And, the industry is growing by leaps and bounds. The equivalent of 17 nuclear reactors’ worth of solar installations shipped in 2010.
6. State and federal tax policy has helped boost wind power over gas and coal in states with high wind potential. States that don’t encourage renewable energy by tax policy are essentially committing mass murder against future generations (present tax policy often favors hydrocarbons unfairly and, criminally).
7. Brazil is seeking to triple its renewable energy generation by 2020, with an emphasis on wind. The government is investing in the renewables much more than in hydrocarbons.
8. Google is increasing its research and development budget for its program to make solar energy cheaper than coal, and is working on grid issues, as well.
9. Global solar capacity grew 73% in 2010. Solar is still only about .5% of global electricity production, but that is an enormous increase over only half a decade ago, and the prospects are for big leaps forward over the next decade.
10. The largest wind farm in Europe has just begun production in Scotland. It will power 250,000 homes. Scotland has made it of the highest priority to get 100% of its energy from renewable sources by 2025, among the most ambitious such plans in the world.
The reason these stories are so important, despite the so-far small contribution of wind and solar to world energy production, is that they point to a near future in which they generate a substantial proportion of the world’s electricity. We are in a race with disaster because of the ever-increasing amounts of carbon dioxide and soot we a spewing into the atmosphere. We are at 393 parts per million of carbon now, up from 380 only a couple of years ago. 450 ppm of atmospheric carbon has been identified by scientists such as James Hansen as the point at which life on earth as we know it begins to look unsustainable. We’ll be there in short order if current trends continue.
These charts from the NOAA Mauna Loa Observatory may tell the striking story of a human species marching to a doom at its own hands, not only blithely unaware of the approaching calamity but actively denying it out of a tragic mixture of greed, shortsightedness and stupidity.
C02 at Mauna Loa Observatory
See
James Hansen, Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity for a clear outline of the scale of the challenge.
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Posted in Energy, Environment | Comments | Print
View the original article here
2. Saudi Arabia plans to become, well, the Saudi Arabia of solar energy production. Plans are being made to stretch power cables to Egypt, where the population of 82 million is hungry for energy. While Egypt has great solar potential of its own, it is oil-rich Saudi Arabia that has the spare cash to invest at the moment in solar installations. And few places on earth have more sunlight and less flora and fauna than the Kingdom’s Empty Quarter. (Saudi and other plans for nuclear plants may have been muted by the Fukushima disaster).
3. The photovoltaic plant at Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates not only powers a major research facility in the city but exports extra power to the UAE grid. AME Info writes, “Masdar Power is currently constructing the 100MW Shams One, one of the largest concentrated solar power plants of its kind in the world and the largest in the Middle East. Located at Madinat Zayed, 120km southwest of Abu Dhabi city, the project, is on schedule for completion towards the end of 2012.”
4. In Turkey, GE is pioneering with a half-gigawatt hybrid power plant that combines wind, solar and natural gas.
5. There have been “ferocious” cost reductions in the price of solar energy. And, the industry is growing by leaps and bounds. The equivalent of 17 nuclear reactors’ worth of solar installations shipped in 2010.
6. State and federal tax policy has helped boost wind power over gas and coal in states with high wind potential. States that don’t encourage renewable energy by tax policy are essentially committing mass murder against future generations (present tax policy often favors hydrocarbons unfairly and, criminally).
7. Brazil is seeking to triple its renewable energy generation by 2020, with an emphasis on wind. The government is investing in the renewables much more than in hydrocarbons.
8. Google is increasing its research and development budget for its program to make solar energy cheaper than coal, and is working on grid issues, as well.
9. Global solar capacity grew 73% in 2010. Solar is still only about .5% of global electricity production, but that is an enormous increase over only half a decade ago, and the prospects are for big leaps forward over the next decade.
10. The largest wind farm in Europe has just begun production in Scotland. It will power 250,000 homes. Scotland has made it of the highest priority to get 100% of its energy from renewable sources by 2025, among the most ambitious such plans in the world.
The reason these stories are so important, despite the so-far small contribution of wind and solar to world energy production, is that they point to a near future in which they generate a substantial proportion of the world’s electricity. We are in a race with disaster because of the ever-increasing amounts of carbon dioxide and soot we a spewing into the atmosphere. We are at 393 parts per million of carbon now, up from 380 only a couple of years ago. 450 ppm of atmospheric carbon has been identified by scientists such as James Hansen as the point at which life on earth as we know it begins to look unsustainable. We’ll be there in short order if current trends continue.
These charts from the NOAA Mauna Loa Observatory may tell the striking story of a human species marching to a doom at its own hands, not only blithely unaware of the approaching calamity but actively denying it out of a tragic mixture of greed, shortsightedness and stupidity.
C02 at Mauna Loa ObservatorySee
James Hansen, Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity for a clear outline of the scale of the challenge.
0 Retweet 20 Share 50 StumbleUpon 0 Printer Friendly Send via email
Posted in Energy, Environment | Comments | Print
View the original article here
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