Green Options

Like this post? Subscribe to our RSS feed and stay up to date.

There is some excitement in the nuclear focused blog world about “The World’s First Commercial High Temperature Nuclear Reactor” based partly on a recent article in Power Engineering by Jana Miller titled “Powering Up A Growing Nation”. This project in Shandong Province will be a unique plant whose reactor heat source is two containers full of spherical fuel elements, each one of which is about the size of a billiard ball.

I am a bit reluctant to call this plant a “first”, but I can get just as excited about the third, 10th or 100th plant in a progressive series of improved plants that should number 1000 reactors or more.

The plant, designated as HTR-PM, will be a 200 MWe pebble bed reactor heated steam plant with two reactors, each with a single steam generator (boiler) feeding a single turbine. The plant will be built in Rongchen City on a site large enough to host series of perhaps 10-12 similar plants. In that area of China, there are hundreds of older coal fired power plants generating 50-300 MWe each.

A new study, “Awnings in Residential Buildings: The Impact on Energy Use and Peak Demand,” conducted by the Center for Sustainable Building Research at the University of Minnesota, has found that awnings over windows on residences can save energy costs and reduce energy use throughout the year.

Billings, MT plays host to three petroleum refineries, which fuel the local economy. I was fortunate to receive an invitation from the American Petroleum Institute to come out as their guest and tour the ConocoPhillips refinery and meet a few of the local citizens to hear their thoughts on big oil.

Out of the three refineries located in Billings, one has a very unique story and position in the world of refining. The ConocoPhillips refinery is the first Energy Star certified refinery in the world (two years in a row). Not bad for an industry that is not highly regarded in public opinion given the current prices we are paying at the pump, but sustainability and environmental factors actually rank very high on the list of priorities for this tightly run operation.

Not only is ConocoPhillips the most energy efficient and least polluting out of the three, it was also the first to form a Citizen’s Advisory Council comprised of community members unafraid to speak up about their concerns with having a refinery located in town - the most prevalent, of course, being air quality control.

Stepping off of the plane (from LA granted), the air in Montana is crisp and clear, which is amazing given the fact that there are three refineries that are emitting sulfur and CO2 among other elements into the air. However, even walking around the Conoco plant, it was hard to smell any evidence of “refining” going on. The community members that I got to speak with (including Stella of local Stella’s Kitchen and Bakery fame) excessively praised the efforts of the Conoco team for this reason and for the EPA air quality reports (which I’ll post on later) showing ConocoPhillips leading the pack in terms of lowest amounts of Sulfur Dioxide and other irritants.

Enjoying a favorite beer shouldn’t get anyone panicky about his ecological footprint, and serious beer manufacturers who are also eco-savvy are taking stock of the impact your beer may be making on the environment.

And for those whose throats never run dry too often, that should give you the more reason to enjoy a drink at dinner or drop by your local joint and order a round or two, to celebrate a triumph for the environment - seeing more and more corporates even in the beer manufacturing industry adopt an agenda to reduce their carbon footprint.

So when East African Breweries or EABL, manufacturers of the world famous Tusker beer, and recently, Senator beer, announced the formation of a fully fledged Green Team to score eco-points for their newly launched Green Goals project, it marked a significant milestone.

The Energy Star Washing Machine vs. The Wonderwash vs. The Basin vs. The Future of Home Dry Cleaning

In this 4-way battle royal to earn the title “The Best Washing Machine for You and the Earth According to Joe”, a variety of factors need to be considered. Water use, electricity use, size of family, and–of course–convenience all need to be given a good look. And even though I am of the mindset that we have way too many unnecessary conveniences in our society, I am aware that some conveniences have proven to be beneficial time savers.

In reading for this post I had to turn to No Impact Man to see what his thoughts were on the subject, because, unlike my familiarity with the reel mower, I have never used an alternative to the washing machine. I was surprised to learn his thoughts.

The laundry machine is the one appliance I believe makes the difference between a life of drudgery and not. If cars are the Devil, as I think they are, then laundry machines are God.

This post was originally published on June 29, 2008.

With many cities experiencing a real estate “slump”, homeowners around the country are looking for ways to stand out from the slew of homes on the market, while improving their home’s resale value. Other homeowners are planning for the future: a future of ever-rising energy prices.

Regardless of your situation, you may be asking yourself if green home improvements increase the home’s value. The answer isn’t as straight-forward as some might hope.

The old rules still apply…

Before we dive in, there are a few things to consider when thinking about making home improvements – green or not. First, remember the three rules of real estate: location, location, location. The return on your investment will depend on the value of your house and others in the neighborhood, as well as your local housing market. Other factors like the quality of the workmanship, and how soon you move after making the improvements weigh in as well.

As far as green gadgets go, this little desktop computer will give Dell and (to a lesser extent) Apple a run for their money.

The CherryPal promises to be affordable, efficient, and powerful enough for the average PC user. At first glance, that stats on the system look modest, and for good reason. This design actually cuts out 20% of PC components to reduce energy usage. But fear not, despite being small (the size of a paperback), the CherryPal claims it can start up in 20 seconds, and cloud computing provides more power/storage when you need it. A Linux operating system (now more user friendly than ever), and cloud computing means you won’t need to worry about viruses or install protective programs that can slow down your PC.

It is estimated that the data storage sector consumed about 61 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2006 (1.5% of total U.S. consumption, or roughly equivalent to the amount consumed by 5.8 million average U.S. households). These numbers are only expected to grow.

The energy used by the nation’s servers and data centers is growing at an unsustainable rate. Not only that, but web servers are notoriously inefficient. For example, computer servers are used at only 6 percent of their capacity on average, while data center facilities operate at roughly 65% to 75% efficiency, meaning that 25% to 35% of all the energy consumed by servers is wasted (converted to heat).

If we are to even consider reducing our energy consumption and carbon footprint, the growing demands generated by our web servers must be near the top of the list of possible improvements. And the Department of Energy agrees.

As we walked into the mammoth PCBC (Pacific Coast Builder Conference) at the Moscone Center in San Francisco we couldn’t help but notice the hanging banners with the words - Power. Forward. Sustain. Of course we could see Power and Forward, as we wouldn’t expect Weakness and Backward but then - Sustain. That omnipresent word like Green that has seeped into the mindset of builders and developers. Or has it? Is it part of the green spin or are things starting to move forward in a powerfully sustainable direction? We decided that “both” loomed as the right answer. For this installment, we decided to cover some of the unexpected and the questionable lower profile “green” products. Sorry about the ” ” around the green but you’ll see where we go with this idea.

We totally got buzzed about something so innocuous that we almost walked passed it because it didn’t have a bunch of Green banners proclaiming its greenness. This Verve living system offers what they called a living control system which in simple terms operates like a whole house lighting system. We’ve seen these before but this one operates on battery free, self sustaining technology or what they call energy harvesting radio frequency technology. Pretty scientific for us but the little gizmo works in a panel that reduces the power so that certain switches can come on at certain levels and times. The systems extends bulb life and new homes don’t need copper wiring installed if they use this system. We even like the parent control which operates like the driver’s control when it comes to locking and unlocking car doors. We’re locked for this system.

Editor’s Note: Today we are happy to bring to you a guest post from Sean Casten, CEO and President of Recycled Energy Development.

Americans have a habit of framing our scientific history as a series of Great Inventors, from Eli Whitney to Thomas Edison to Afrika Bambaataa. The history books say each was prodded by Adam Smith’s invisible hand to come up with the great technological advances that have made our country a home of innovation.

There’s a problem with this mythology: sometimes there’s no invisible hand. Sometimes short-sighted government regulations give preference to bad technologies over good ones — stifling innovation and blinding us to our own ability to make progress.

Nowhere is this mythology more evident than in our energy system, the most heavily regulated and subsidized industry in the country. A host of bad regulations have made this system grossly inefficient, contributing both to global warming and to high power costs.

Known for building homes across the world for those in need, Habitat for Humanity now celebrates the occupancy of the program’s first LEED Silver certified homes in San Pedro, CA.

Begun during the 2007 Jimmy Carter Work Event over six days last year, 16 local families now enjoy the fruits of their labor - homes built alongside more than 5,000 volunteers. Not only are the homes LEED Silver, but they have another enviable feature: they include access to solar energy. Collectively, the families’ energy bills are expected to be reduced by $200,000 over time (keep an eye out for a related story about the innovative installation at CleanTechnica.)