Green Options » Matthew Phelan

Corn-Based BioFuels Still Counterproductive

Matthew Phelan — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 03:52:59 +0000

Here comes more dour empirical data.

Ongoing deforestation in countries such as Brazil, Indonesia and Malaysia has been further linked to the rising demand for biofuels, according to speakers at a recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS):

“If reduced U.S. soybean production results in a parallel increase in Brazilian soybean production, a potential net release of 1,800 to 9,100 Tg (trillion grams) of CO2-equivalents of greenhouse gas emissions due to land-use change is possible,” [Michael Coe of Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts] wrote in a summary of his talk. That is equivalent to more than 9 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide.

Let’s just hope someone has that cellulosic biofuel breakthrough we’re all hoping for.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Clean Energy From Nuclear Fuel Rods and Oil Rigs [WTF?! FTW!]

Matthew Phelan — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 20:35:55 +0000

Few energy technologies fit CleanTechnica’s “Technology Inspired By Nature” tag-line as thoroughly as the University of Michigan’s VIVACE Converter—which as we’ve already mentioned derives many of its innovations from imitating how fish create and exploit turbulent currents.

As adorable and eco-friendly as that sounds, it’s also reassuring for investors and geeks to know that VIVACE has additional foundation in over a century of really hardcore (and phenomenally mind-numbing) mechanical and structural engineering research (i.e. Fluid Dynamics).

Hot Hot Heat: U.S. Solar Costs Going Down

Matthew Phelan — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:53:00 +0000

According to a new study conducted by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, The average installed costs for photovoltaic cells (in real 2007 dollars) went down from $10.50-per-watt in 1998, to $7.60-per-watt in 2007.

What’s most amazing about this report is that it appears to validate a whole slew of state and local solar initiatives. The researchers found that—despite the many, many reported advances to solar cell efficiency—most of the savings during this nine year period came from reductions to installation and external hardware costs.

Can the World’s Worst CD and DVD Manufacturer Do Better with Solar Energy?

Matthew Phelan — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 03:44:35 +0000

Sun Well Solar—a subsidiary of the notoriously poor CD and DVD manufacturer, CMC Magnetics—has announced today that it is one month ahead of schedule in the ramp-up of its new photovoltaic production line.