By Chris Bacavis •
August 24, 2009
In a stark contrast with how construction used to be thought of, the green building movement has been a shift away from the traditional concerns about money and time. The betterment of our planet, as it turns out, is quickly becoming a bigger priority. Since March of this year, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program has seen around 20,852 new LEED registered and certified projects.
Most of this can be attributed to the fact that builders view green buildings as more economical in the long run, and recent incentives on the part of the government have added an extra encouragement. But while these positives have been talked about pretty often, there are some risks associated with going green that still leave many builders wary.
By Zachary Shahan •
July 25, 2009
In a meeting with environment and energy ministers from other European countries yesterday, Sweden’s Minister of Environment, Andreas Carlgren, said that global economic problems should in no way slow movement to address climate change. Other leading European ministers agreed.
Economic problems today are in many ways a result of environmental missteps in the past. If we want a healthy economy in the future, we have to take the environment into account more than we have. The Swedish Minister of the Environment agrees and says that there should be no hesitation to combat climate change due to the current economic situation.
By Andrew Williams •
July 24, 2009
Major US renewables company Astonfield is set to invest a massive $2 billion in India over the next five years, the largest single cash-injection in renewable energy ever seen in the sub-continent.
The deal will generate about 1,000 MW of power, most of it from solar sources.
Much of the proposed $2 billion investment will go towards building solar-photovoltaic powered projects with a capacity of 500 MW.
By Andrew Williams •
July 22, 2009
A far reaching report has called on the aviation industry to drastically increase the use of biofuels, to make a 60% reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The study, called ‘Green Skies Thinking‘, was published today by right wing think-tank Policy Exchange, and advocates the phase-in of an EU Sustainable Bio-Jet Fuel Blending Mandate by 2020, which would force aviation companies to commit to a rising proportion of jet fuel from sustainable bio-jet fuels.
Crucially, the report also reckons that growing the feedstock needed for advanced biofuels would require significantly less land and be more sustainable than first generation biofuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel, generally used by road transport.
By Lisa Wojnovich •
June 19, 2009
In the constant push for ever newer and greener technology and energy, we sometimes forget that it is often both simpler and cheaper to revisit old techniques in new ways. And that’s exactly what a group of researchers in California has done.
By Richard Elen •
January 30, 2009
In France, the Old Left is rising again. Working people are becoming angry that bankers are being bailed out to continue to pay obscene bonuses while ordinary peoples’ jobs go to the wall. Governments are under pressure to limit mass unemployment as a result of the recession. But this cannot be done by propping up environmentally-dangerous industries. They must be required to change. It’s a story of danger – and of opportunity.
By Michael Ricciardi •
January 29, 2009
Harnessing the Earth’s Heat for Food and Power
As the rumbling temblors beneath Yellowstone National Park continue (over 900 hundred such weak quakes in 2008), media attention shifts to two topics: the possibility of a super-volcanic eruption (not likely, according to most geologists), and secondly, the harnessing of geothermal energy.
This latter consideration is all the more fashionable these days as America struggles to embrace an alternative and sustainable energy future.
Geothermal energy offers the promise of a virtually unlimited source of power. Although less energetic in terms of total constant power output compared to the sun, harnessing the geothermal venting from a single, sufficiently high-grade, hot-spring could conceivably provide power for a population of tens of thousands, and it’s not weather dependent. But there are also plenty of “lower grade” springs that can be put to other uses, such as growing hothouse produce (and the spring water is also used for watering the plants) and naturally warming water for fish farming (the Talipia species, a popular dinner fish, is one species farmed this way). Not all animals that are farmed this way are used for food, some, like the farmed alligators in Mosca, CO (see photo), are raised for their skins primarily (though some do eat the meat).
By edfblog •
January 12, 2009
Making green the new business as usual is catching on fast. Smart business leaders are looking for ways to cut costs and reduce their environmental impact — but they may not know exactly how to do it.
Environmental Defense Fund has just launched the Innovation Exchange, a first-of-its-kind online resource that allows businesses to quickly identify steps they can take, from greening their fleets to reducing paper use.
The new EDF site provides companies with recommendations, case studies, publications and tools to make changes that are good for the environment and the bottom line, for example:
By Nick Chambers •
January 5, 2009
A team of Taiwanese researchers has combined industrial wastewater and petroleum oil to make a new fuel that could largely eliminate the costly treatment of industrial air emissions from boilers, is an environmentally-friendly way to treat industrial wastewater, and could increase fuel efficiency by 14%.
Worldwide, many industrial processes depend on steam boilers that are powered by what’s called heavy fuel oil (HFO). In the US, where coal and natural gas are plentiful, boilers are not typically run on HFO, but many homes in the Northeast US are still heated with furnaces that use HFO. These boilers are notorious for spewing out toxins into the environment when untreated.
By Dave Harcourt •
November 30, 2008
A previous post, Rolling Blackouts to Benefit South Africa, hypothesised that the strong reaction to the rolling blackouts Eskom was forced to implement has resulted in urgent
action which will in the medium term ensure South Africa has the energy systems it needs for its long term development.
In 2004 the three major users of electricity in South Africa were Industry (64.6%), Residential (17.4%) and Commerce (12.0%). It was therefore logical that once Eskom, with the “urging” of Government, faced the situation and took co-ordinated action it went to industry.
Discussions with industries and especially the large users in mining and manufacturing, were based on Eskom admitting that it was unable to guarantee supplies to industry, presenting a long term plan of action and requesting that industry manage itself to achieve an immediate 10% reduction in its consumption.
Industry supported the request although it lead to week long shut downs of a number of mines which were unable to immediately reduce their consumption without effecting the complete process.
This was termed Phase 1 of the National Emergency Response Plan and was mainly aimed at stabilising the system to avoid catastrophic shut downs that could result from instability induced by too small a margin between demand and supply.
