Green Options » plant

Italy to Get Largest Rooftop Solar Power Plant in the World

Andrew Williams — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:53:08 +0000

An Italian company has announced plans to install the world’s largest rooftop solar photovoltaic plant, with an energy capacity equivalent to the power needs of 5,000 households.

Solon SE will establish the facility at its Padua warehouse and truck-loading complex, generating an output of up to 15 megawatts when the sun is at its brightest.

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Austrian Nuclear Power Station Converts to 100% Solar Energy

Andrew Williams — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:23:40 +0000

Earlier today the Zwentendorf nuclear plant in Austria reopened as a solar power station, making it the largest facility of its kind anywhere in the country.

Following its completion over 30 years ago, the plant’s operation was fiercely contested - culminating in a 1978 national referendum forcing it to close. Since then it has lain dormant as a visible testament to Austrian concerns over nuclear energy.

Now, following a €1.2 million investment the plant has reemerged as a major renewable energy production facility.

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Yearn Worthy Yarn: Ecological Arts

Kelly Rand — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:30:43 +0000

So we’ve all heard of the benefits of the 100 mile diet and have even coined the term locavore, but what about using the same principals and applying them to yarn?

Well, meet Ecological Arts who offers a small amount of handspun, organic and naturally dyed yarns.

Not only are these yarns, handspun, organic and naturally dyed, the fibers are locally sourced as well as the plants used in the dyes.

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Reva to Build World’s Largest Electric Car Factory in India

Andrew Williams — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:56:51 +0000

The Reva Electric Car Company has announced plans to build the world’s largest factory for cheap all-electric cars, capable of a massive annual output of 30,000 units.

The Bangalore, India-based company hopes that after the Rs300m ($6.1m) facility begins production in the first quarter of next year, it will help to introduce green energy to the subcontinent’s rapidly growing automotive industry.

The Reva, a small hatchback powered by eight six-volt batteries, retails for a mega-competitive Rs350,000 in India and £7,500 ($12,200) in the UK, (where it is marketed under the G-Wiz brand), far less than most rival companies.

Speaking about the plan, Chetan Maini, Reva’s deputy chairman and chief technology officer said, “We are promoting a technology that holds the key to the global energy crisis.”

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Nissan to Build Massive Electric Car Factory in US

Andrew Williams — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:08:13 +0000

Nissan has announced plans to launch the large-scale production of electric cars and batteries in the United States, with a massive 50 billion Yen ($516 million) facility in Smyrna, Tennessee.

The site will be capable of knocking-out an impressive 50,000 to 100,000 EVs by 2012, with investment possibly DOUBLING to 100 billion Yen (more than $1 Billion).

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Canada’s Clean Coal Concept

Lisa Wojnovich — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:57:42 +0000

Wednesday, Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice announced his government’s most recent plan for eliminating CO₂ emissions. The Canadian government hopes to phase out electrical generation by modern coal technology in favor of carbon capture and storage (CCS) — the much debated and as yet unproven “clean coal” concept — nuclear power, and other, renewable sources of energy.

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New Device Allows Thirsty Plants to Twitter for Water

Andrew Williams — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:37:15 +0000

Go on, admit it - how many times have you forgotten to water your houseplants? Maybe you’ve even left some of them so long they’ve withered away to nothing. In fact, the chances are that if a plant could talk the thing they’d be most likely to say would be WATER ME!

Well, thanks to a new device, your long-suffering plants will now be able to do just that. What’s that you say - a talking houseplant? Well, not exactly, but thanks to researchers at New York University’s interactive telecommunications program plants will now be able to to tell owners when they need water or if they’ve had too much via the social networking service Twitter.

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Thousands of Youth Organize in DC to End “Clean Coal” Lie

Rhonda Winter — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 01:15:58 +0000

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Both “clean coal” and carbon trading are lies. They are huge scams perpetrated by massive energy companies that are choking our planet. Over twelve thousand students converged on Washington D.C. to demand an end to polluting coal plants, and that the United States start to lead the world in creating truly sustainable clean energy and green jobs. Students filled the halls of Congress, lobbying their elected officials to fight global warming and demanding an end to polluting coal.

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Yearn Worthy Yarn: Cloud Cotton

Kelly Rand — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:30:50 +0000

Still on a plant fiber kick, this week I’ve come back to cotton. It isn’t recycled this time but an honest to goodness 100% organic cotton. This lovely yarn from Estelle Yarns is certified organic and comes in wide range of sturdy colors.

Cloud Cotton is available in dyed and undyed. The dyed cotton ranges from bright spring greens to soothing blues. The undyed cotton is natural looking browns and neutrals.

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Planting with Paper Pots

Rhonda Winter — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 19:44:47 +0000

My neighbor Alyssa and I spent this afternoon making paper pots to propagate wildflower seeds for our neighborhood community garden. Anyone can create these simple recycled pots using just an empty can or jar and paper; we used cut up grocery bags and old newspapers for our organic planting project.

Alyssa displays her completed paper pot filled with planting soil.

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Iran Opens its First Solar Power Plant

Andrew Williams — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:40:23 +0000

Iran has announced the opening of its first ever solar power plant in the town of Shiraz in the Southwest of the country.

Energy Minister Parviz Fattah told reporters that the facility was constructed using Iranian materials and expertise. Speaking to the Iranian News Agency he said, “The country backs the use of alternative and renewable energy sources. In future alternative energy sources will be greatly developed in the country. The growth of investments in this sphere is expected.”

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China Starts Building Its Largest Ever Solar Power Project

Andrew Williams — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:10:02 +0000

Earlier this week, the China Huaneng Group started building China’s largest ever solar power plant, a massive 166 Megawatt (MW) facility in the southern province of Yunnan.

The project, costing a total of 9.1 billion yuan ($1.3 billion), is scheduled to commence operations in 2010. According to the China Electricity Council, the company intends to expand its capacity for solar, wind and other clean energy projects to an impressive 10,000 MW by the end of the same year.

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Company to Convert Former Nuclear Waste Site Into Green Datacenter

Andrew Williams — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:08:26 +0000

Web hosting company 1&1 has revealed plans to convert a former nuclear waste site into a huge datacenter, powered entirely by renewable energy.

The company, which manages a total of more than 10 million domain names, plans to squeeze 100,000 servers into the 10,000 sq metre facility in Hanau, Germany.

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Spain to Set Up Climate Change Research Institute, Plant 45 Million Trees by 2012

Andrew Williams — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:04:25 +0000

Speaking at a news conference last Friday, Spain’s Environment Minister Elena Espinosa announced plans to establish a Climate Change Research Institute in the Northeastern city of Zaragoza. She also unveiled an exciting initiative to plant 45 million trees across the country between 2009 and 2012, roughly one for every member of the population.

Amongst European nations, Spain stands to suffer more than most from the effects of climate change and global warming, with nearly a third of the nation’s roughly 200,000 square miles threatened with a “significant risk” of desertification. In direct response to the threat, the government will invest around 90 million Euros as part of the reforestation drive.

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Human Interaction with Nature: Benefits of Biodiversity

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Mon, 19 May 2008 19:11:21 +0000

Editor’s note: For the last few months, we have run a number of guest posts from students in Professor Simran Sethi’s “Media and the Environment” course at the University of Kansas. We’ve all been pretty impressed with the work these students have done, so we were delighted to agree to publish a small-group final project from students J.J. DeSimone, Lindsay Crupper, Denzyl Janneker, Bobby Grace, and Adam Bowman. They focused on biodiversity in their project, and we’ll publish all five parts over the course of this week. Today’s post was originally published on May 9, 2008.

As humans, we collectively tend to be self-absorbed and not think outside our sphere of influence. More specifically, if something in the world doesn’t directly affect us we give little or no attention to it (I’m one of the worst culprits, myself). As such, it’s very easy for us not to think about what human wastefulness and global warming are doing to our plant and animal life. However, losing our earth’s bio and eco-diversity has frightening ramifications for humanity.

Photo credit: Adam Bowman

Taken in the Uintah Mountains, this photo illustrates what humans could lose unless they act to preserve open spaces.

According to Baker University Biology Professor and Natural Areas Director Roger Boyd, biodiversity is the amount of species in a given area. More broadly, eco-diversity refers to the number of ecosystems there are on the planet. If eco and biodiversity continues to decrease on the planet, then less food is available to sustain life. In essence, all of the earth’s biological life is interconnected; if our furry and scale-covered brethren run out of food, so do we.

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Greening The Golden Years Podcast: Do Plants Really Talk with One Another? New Research Says, Yes!

Max Lindberg — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:15:42 +0000

Ever wonder what these plants are saying to one another? Researchers in the Netherlands say there’s an early-warning network in place. Is it only clover, no, many herbal plants have been studied.

And what about talking to your plants,does that work? And can one plant feel inferior to another?

It’s all included here, on Greening the Golden Years Podcast.