By Dave Tyler •
June 15, 2009
The state of Massachusetts is hunting for unusual places to put wind turbines as it looks to meet an ambitious goal of producing 2,000 megawatts of windpower by 2020.
The
Associated Press reports that state officials are encouraging municipal planners to look at using capped landfills as potential wind farm locations. Plans were also just announced for a military reservation on Cape Cod.
The state is hoping to jump start development, because right now, the AP reports, there are only 11 commercial scale turbines in the state. But, ther are dozens of smaller ones installed and nearly 200 other projects in various stages of planning.
Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management do more than study issues like carbon footprints and energy consumption … they’re ready to tackle such subjects hands-on.
That’s what a group of students, faculty and staff did last week when they put down their laptops and picked up some caulking guns.
Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have won one of six U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grants for economically sustainable programs that protect the environment.
Launched by doctoral candidates Amy Mueller and Matt Orosz, the MIT project aims to bring cheap and eco-friendly energy to parts of the world that are now off the grid. The focus of their efforts: Lesotho, in southern Africa, where many people now get their energy from highly polluting diesel generators.
The students’ alternative comes in the form of solar energy. Not the expensive, photovoltaic-dependent kind, but the affordable and easy-to-harness concentrating solar kind. Their energy generator uses a parabolic trough to concentrate the sun’s energy to heat water to provide steam energy as well as hot water.
By Dave Tyler •
April 9, 2009
Hey, hold on a just a minute Chicago, San Francisco and Portland. Connecticut and Massachusetts want in on your race to be the country’s EV hotbed.
Northeast Utilities wants to build a 575-outlet EV charging system in the Nutmeg and Bay States, The Hartford Courant says. The pilot project would take two years to complete and the outlets would be built at private homes, businesses and public spots. Total cost: $1.4 million, helped out by a $694,000 federal grant.
By Jake Richardson •
March 29, 2009
There are only about 325 North Atlantic right whales left in the world, and approximately 80 of them have assembled in the waters near Cape Cod.
They have come together to feed on an unusually huge population of zooplankton. The whales normally follow zooplankton from Canada as they are moved with ocean currents down to the Massachusetts coast. This year the extra numbers of zooplankton are attracting a record congregation of North Atlantic rights, which are one of the most endangered species in the world.
By Tom Schueneman •
March 13, 2009
Changents provides the platform for Down2Earth and the City of Boston to promote the semi-finalists in the Pitch the City contest aimed at engaging the community to think up new ways to make Boston greener.
By Andrew Williams •
February 4, 2009
Fifteen-year-old Bostonian Jordan Star has emerged as the surprise driving force behind a bill to ban the cruel practice of ’surgically silencing’ cats and dogs by removing their vocal cords.
Star, a freshman at Needham High, decided to take action after coming across a dog that had been debarked and abandoned. “It was just horrible,” he said of the dog’s struggle to get his attention. “It was just like a hoarse, wheezy cough. In a shelter, all they are is a mutilated animal, which makes them harder to adopt.”
By Sean Sullivan •
January 31, 2009
There’s gold in them thar hills!
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.
By Sean Sullivan •
January 17, 2009
Someday, the Cape Wind story will become a major Hollywood blockbuster.
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.
By Timothy B. Hurst •
January 17, 2009
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announced a plan to get ten percent of the state’s energy from wind energy by 2020.
By Sean Sullivan •
January 10, 2009
Mark the date.
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.
