Now we’re cooking.

Operation of a new Spanish solar thermal plant just kicked into high gear, taking the title as the world’s largest commercial tower-type collector.

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Concerned about your travel footprint?

Wallet a little thinner than you’re used to?

Whether planning to visit another state or country, house swapping is a great way to take a bite out of your travel plan footprint and save a wheelbarrow full of cash.

Ever wish you had a close friend living in every cool country you ever wanted to visit? Now you do, sort of. Home Exchange Now is a website that lets users temporarily swap their living quarters. Think of it as an international exchange program – minus the college coursework.

Users of the site pick a country, when they’d like to stay, and then search for like minded foreigners who’d like to swap houses for a spell. 

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The evolution of industrial power has been largely a story of utility. Societies adopted the most productive means of producing power, irrespective of all other concerns. Wind and water power may have been cheaper and cleaner, but with available technology were far less productive ways of making stuff.  Hence, they were abandoned in favor of fossil fuels. 

This is why, even after the energy trials and tribulations of the 1970s and the spikes in prices since, FFs still hold sway. Renewables just never quite had the reliable and sustained punch of the power we could generate by setting things on fire.

Yet present-day advances in solar promise to turn that model on its head. This time, we start with one of the cleanest fuels available – sunlight – and learn how to use it as productively as possible.        

Keep an eye on concentrating solar power (CSP), which has the potential to give fossil fueled power plants a run for their (and our) money in the near future.

This solar technology has the audacity, the unmitigated gall, to produce electricity long after the sun has gone down. What, you may ask, are these upstarts trying to do? Compete with coal and natural gas?

Pretty much.

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Recently, commentator/comedian Bill Maher hypothesized what would happen if the only sacrifice required to curb climate change was for people everywhere to give up their TV remotes. His theory was that, after an intolerable stint of shuffling betwixt couch and television, harried viewers would finally give up and resume clicking the world toward apocalypse.

It’s an amusing premise, though one seasoned with the nagging aftertaste of truth.  For sustainability will ultimately require changing many small habits, which when weighed in the aggregate, make a big difference.

Few of these habits have received as much attention from environmental advocates as disposable water bottles. Why water? Mainly because (disposable) bottled water adds an avalanche of industry to a resource that is readily and cheaply available at the tap.

Pointing to the success of bottled water, one could make a compelling case for a bottled air industry. There could emerge rainforest and mountain flavors. Cracking open a bottle would provide a lungful of rarefied airs from exotic locales.

Alpine Air. Belgium Breeze. Wyoming Wind. In the realm of the absurd, possibilities are endless.

Yet bottled water has become a staple of Americans on the go, and plucking it from the shelf plays a part in the grocery store shopping ritual for millions of us.

Toothpaste?
Check.

Noodles?
Got ‘em.

Bottles containing the same stuff drawn nearly free from household tap?
Score.

Now enter boxed water. The company’s name is Boxed Water is Better, and it is marketing the product as an earth-friendlier alternative to plastic bottles.

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SEIA (Solar Energy Industries Association) just released its yearly review, which identified 2008 as the third in a string of record growth years.

The numbers were for the US solar market, with a highlight of 1,265 megawatts (MW) of new installed solar power. The figure includes all forms of the energy resource, from photovoltaic (PV) to home and water heating. PV modules accounted for 342 MW of that total. A conversion formula is used to express solar heating capacity in an electrical equivalent.

Returns on investment for solar electric installations typically take longer than heating applications. Yet while thermal power has comprised the lion’s share of the solar market since 2000, the percentage of PV growth for the same period has been greater and more stable.

States also made strides last year in terms of solar legislation. Already a leader in the solar hot water arena, Hawaii further bolstered that title last year when it began requiring that all new construction include the technology.

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BuildingEnergy09 will run Mar. 10 – 12 in Boston, MA at the Seaport World Trade Center,  and will include top names in the realms of renewables, efficiency and sustainable building practices.

The event’s content and 200 presenters are geared to accommodate everyone from veteran builders and policy makers to students looking to expand skill sets in these important and growing areas.

Forums will range from immediate and practical knowledge – including installation techniques and building materials – to the most effective tools employed toward the policy and advocacy of sustainability.

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JumpGauge is an online tool allowing prospective buyers to assess and compare the environmental impacts of a growing number of products.  The site pairs seemingly common, everyday products with icons that denote their uncommon stewardship of the environment. 

The site is geared more toward mainstream buyers, those otherwise less inclined to delve deeply into the origins and impacts of things they buy. Yet as common consumers continue to turn an ever deepening shade of green, they are seeking ways to spend their green in a more eco responsible manner.

Enter JumpGauge, a  tool that requires little effort to see what goes into manufacturing and bringing a product to market. 

As traditional buyers become more aware of how the products they purchase affect the environment, they are learning too that their own interests and those of the planet are often one and the same.

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Mom meant that if you’re not busy doing something constructive, bad things were bound to follow.

That’s also the rationale behind NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s latest law aimed at making the city more eco friendly. The mayor has added yet another piece of legislation to a growing list of environmentally friendly measures.

The new law will reduce the time drivers can run their engines while going nowhere.

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The department is accepting bids for contracts to investigate sites in Pennsylvania as suitable holding cells for the captured CO2. The work would consist primarily of mapping out geologic formations below the earth’s surface to determine the most suitable spots for storing the gases. The bid deadline is Feb. 20.  

Pennsylvania is among the most polluting of US states, ranking third in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. It is estimated the state produces 1 percent of the world’s total climate change pollutants. The carbon capture and storage plan is an effort to improve the state’s standing and combat climate change.  

The CO2 – a major cause of global warming - would be stored about a half mile underground and come mainly from coal fired and other fossil fueled electrical plants. A risk assessment and cost study are set to begin this spring.

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The cut flower industry is among those that raise the ire of the thoughtful environmentalist. Nearly three of every four cut flowers sold in the US are imported, and a large chunk of those come from South America. Colombia and Ecuador are large growers and exporters of roses, and flowers can be flown in from as far as Europe.

Following those flowers leads one to the unhappy knowledge of all that’s involved in their life cycle, from seed to vase. It’s symbolic of our throw away society that many don’t consider the tremendous waste that’s part and parcel of bringing those flowers to market.

Because cut flowers are especially perishable, they must be flown in over long distances to avoid spoilage. That’s quite a carbon footprint for a product that under best conditions will last a week or so.

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First, if you haven’t read Friedman’s latest book yet, start today. Second, if you’d like to see how some are preparing for this brave new world, read on.

While our electrical power still comes mainly from burning dirty fossil fuels and our electrical transmission grid lies in dire need of modernization, the future of electrical power is a bright spot in our otherwise gloomy energy paradigm.

For while fossil fuels will always be a dirty power source to some extent, there are viable, cleaner ways to generate and deliver electrons.

Locally and renewable-generated power is a promising solution to the inefficiency and pollution of our current system. Individuals interested in sustainability know those bananas flown in from Costa Rica may be a delicious and great source of potassium, but recognize also all the wasted energy spent to transport them.

The same theory holds for the delivery of our energy. Convenient though it may seem to site a coal power plant in someone else’s backyard far, far away, much of that energy is lost when electricity is forced to travel such distances.

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But to mine it you first must find it, and a revamped website now provides an extremely easy way to do just that. While all that glitters is indeed not gold, this precious resource is far more valuable – wind.

3Tier’s website tool FirstLook allows average Internet users to mine their neighborhoods for wind power potential. Users familiar with Google Maps will feel right at ease with the software, which offers wind assessment for all of North America. For those of us fooled by intentionally vague oil and gas ads, that region includes the US, Canada and Mexico.

Users can type in their town and state, and the site will direct a cursor to the spot. The wind prospector then zooms in for a more detailed view of the resource’s potential for that area.  For greater precision, coordinates can be fed into the search in lieu of a town or state. FirstLook essentially puts a push pin in the area of the user’s choice, providing detailed reports of wind resources at that site.

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Not exactly. But new efforts are seeking to give this notoriously dirty fuel source a sustainable and renewable boost.

The Electric Power Research Institute has launched two projects that will infuse solar energy into already existing coal fired electrical generation plants.  Solar power and coal have traditionally been the poster children of right and wrong, clean and dirty, sustainable and finite in terms of energy production. But now these two resources at spectrum’s ends are being brought together.

• » See also: Solar Community Bargaining in Los Angeles
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The two power plants that have adopted this solar infusion process are Tri-State’s 245 megawatt Escalante generating station in Prewitt, New Mexico, and Progress Energy’s 742 megawatt plant in Roxboro, North Carolina.

Coal is burned to produce steam, whose pressure then turns a generator’s turbines to produce electric power. Now add solar. The two pilot installations collect and concentrate the sun’s rays to boil water into steam, which is then fed into the coal-generated steam stream to augment its power.

The idea has promise. The added rays of sunshine would conceivably allow a plant to produce the same amount of power while burning and emitting less coal and carbon respectively. Like our beloved hybrid cars, this effort seeks to take a dirty source of energy we all use and give it a cleaner and more sustainable kick in the pants.

If we accept the idea that like our cars, coal fired plants won’t disappear anytime soon, the idea of using renewables to help these fossil-fueled dinosaurs lumber reluctantly into the future is an appealing premise.

This philosophy is being tried across the dirty-energy spectrum, as in the case of trans-oceanic vessels (oil tankers included) fitted with what are essentially parasails. These glorified kites catch wind resources moving in concert with the vessel, and save fuel by helping to pull the ship on its way.

How’s that for a symbol of our changing times and attitudes? An archaic and dwindling fuel source whose heyday has come and gone, pulled limping toward the horizon by the next generation of renewable energy. It’s enough to give an environmentalist a warm and sustainable feeling inside.

In addition to adding a little sustainability into the coal fired mix, the process would also help states meet new electrical generation standards. More than half of US states have adopted requirements to add cleaner energy. Under renewable portfolio standards (RPS), states mandate that a certain percentage of their electrical power will be generated from renewables by established deadlines.

Clean Coal — a Contradiction in Terms?

Like so many so-called “green” innovations and ideas these days, projects like this can seem (and often are) a greenwash. They take a dirty and unsustainable practice and seek to dress it up in the green-hued fashion of the day, yet underneath lies the same unsightly product. Greenwashing may be good business in the short term, but ultimately is unethical and unsustainable in the long.

Strict environmentalists may look askance at the idea of “cleaner” coal fired generation, and interest groups have formed with the sole purpose of debunking the idea of clean coal. In strict terms, they are right. Yet the solar technology used in these pilot programs doesn’t seek or succeed in making the burning of coal cleaner. It’s goal - and it’s a feasible one - is to replace a small and hopefully growing percentage of that coal with solar power.

Eons ago, the ancient sun’s rays were captured in vegetation long since vanished from the earth. These layers of organic matter then decayed over time and under pressure to give us the fossil fuels of today. These dirty fuels are essentially stored solar energy, a bittersweet gift that has afforded us prosperity, but now which threatens our future.

Difficult to believe that the principle of generating electricity directly from the sun’s rays predates the civil war and was put into practice a half century ago. It’s as though we’ve had the cure for cancer gathering dust on the shelf, but were too busy or lazy to be bothered with taking it out of the box. Yet climate change is now seen as an affliction serious enough to warrant the widespread adoption of solar and other renewables.

While the addition of solar energy to existing coal plants may be seen by eco-purists as a smile on a dog, it is at least a step in the right direction. What is needed is the resolve to supplant the ancient and dirty fuels handed down to us from the sun, by replacing them with the solar energy available to us immediately in the present.

The solar assist technology being pioneered in these coal plants seeks to do just that, although to a limited extent.  Using young and clean solar energy (in all its forms), to replace its dirty ancestors is a step in the right direction.

Coal Mountain Photo http://flickr.com/photos/mkorchia/2423387296/
Solar Collector Photo Geri Kodey NREL/DOE http://www.nrel.gov/data/pix/searchpix.cgi?getrec=1274819&display_type=verbose&search_reverse=1

Or at least a two-part television miniseries starring Ed Begley Jr. On the Discovery Channel.

The effort to build an offshore wind farm - it would be the US’s first - has thus far been a roller coaster ride for advocates and opponents alike.

If that movie is ever made, this Jan. 18 will occupy a turning point in the story’s script, the day the jury levees its verdict before a rapt courtroom. Here and now, the date stands as a milestone in the life of the Cape Wind drama, marking the release of the farm’s final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

The report is an exhaustive seal of approval of sorts, the final official analysis of how the wind project would likely affect its environment.

The federal Minerals Management Service assembled the report, an 800-page tome touching on every aspect of the wind farm - from expected effects on local economies and energy supply to its influence on bat and bird populations.

Adverse effects according to the report, would be mostly negligible or minor with a few moderate effects expected.

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Planners and volunteers met yesterday to brainstorm for this year’s annual Boston GreenFest, a celebration and education of all things environmental. The fair at City Hall Plaza, which will take place Friday and Saturday this August 21 and 22, includes hundreds of exhibitors and sponsors and promises to be the greenest and fullest showing yet for the Massachusetts festival.

Bright, abundant sunshine and strong winds pervaded the city during the late-morning meeting, natural resources that seemed good omens for the summer festival and that will undoubtedly be featured in solar and wind power exhibits there.

The informal Boston GreenFest committee, comprised of occupations and talents as varied as insurance professional, fundraiser, student and community activist, discussed the character and message of the event, as well as its participants.

“The broadest scope possible is the answer,” said Dr. Karen Weber. “We believe the message has to get out in the broadest sense possible.”

Weber heads Foundation for a Green Future, the organization hosting Boston GreenFest.

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