Unless you are a vegetarian, you probably agree that chicken is delicious. But could this fowl have a future in automobiles? According to a presentation made at the 13th Annual Green Chemical and Engineering Conference this weekend…maybe. It seems that carbonized chicken feathers can hold hydrogen quite well; better than carbon nanotubes or metal hydrides currently being tested as hydrogen carriers. Could this solve the infrastructure problems currently holding hydrogen technology back?

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So we have all heard by now that Google is getting into the power management game, Cisco and IBM are coming to play too, but are the mega-stars of the VC and IT worlds going to be creating the new terms of energy management, or will local management solutions be more effective as the method for some markets? The easy answer is that it depends. Local grids can be made up of energy generation near recipient towns, cities or villages, just as energy can travel from another portion of a state or country, but increasingly there will be local power generation which will need to be brought intelligently to local customers on a block by block or building by building scale. ‘Micro-grids’ as they have come to be known, will likely serve most readily and immediately rural populations, who will bypass the need for state-electrification and develop power-management systems on their own because it is easier to implement than waiting for infrastructure build-out.

Many of the major players in the space have been basing their assumptions for growth not upon this notion, but upon a Western model of electrification. While the hardware developed by major California smart grid firms such as Trilliant and Silver Springs Networks will rightfully be applied toward the lucrative state or utility scale projects, these projects will only deal with the needs existing within the existing grid framework. The growth of the space will need innovation in power-management for those who either do not currently have access to an electrical grid or those who can benefit from opting-out of one altogether.

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When it comes to altered tins, there aren’t any rules.  You can paint them, draw on them, glue stuff to them… what ever you desire.  Today I wanted to share an easy tutorial for altering tins with paper to make simple decorative storage containers.

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Toys!  Toys!  Toys!  If you have kids, chances are your house is overrun with them.

Cheap plastic garbage toys gifted from well-intentioned relatives; expensive high-quality wooden eco-friendly educational pieces that are almost more works of art than toys; noisy electronic toys; toys with a million pieces that always turn up in the darndest of places (but never when you’re actually looking for them)… We concoct ingenious storage solutions, we spend our hard-earned dollars on the very latest thing, and then we hear that inevitable lament:

Mo-o-om… We’re booooooooooooooored!!!

So there you find yourself, bewilderingly surrounded by this mountain of costly yet apparently useless paraphernalia on one side, and these adorable yet apparently helpless children on the other, thinking “there has GOT to be a better way!”

Well take heart, because there is.

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Today we’re joined by guest blogger Jeff Hobbs of Organize-Design-Live. Jeff specializes in home organization and interior design in Los Angeles and he is going to share some helpful thoughts with us on getting orGREENized in the New Year.

Get orGREENized in ‘09

Are your closets and drawers your worst enemies? Do you constantly misplace files at your office? Well, it’s a new year so that means we have the opportunity to make some changes, let go of the guilt about the things we didn’t do last year, and start fresh. Getting your personal space organized will result in more efficiency in just about every area of your life. . . a great place to start if you’re serious about fulfilling some of this year’s resolutions. And why not roll the resolutions of getting organized and being more environmentally friendly into one? There are so many great products on the market today, along with other creative organizational systems, that won’t break your bank or our environment.

Here are a few ideas, products, and tips to get you started…

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The quilts were all visibly worn-looking, weak, and discolored along their fold lines. On my Nana’s friendship quilt, some of the color of the embroidery that served as the signature of the women who pieced the quilt had bled onto other parts of the quilt that they’d been shoved against for thirty years. The quilt on the hanger is in the worst shape–the plastic had stuck to it in a few spots (it’s a nine-patch my Nana made in the 1970s, out of polyester), and it didn’t really want to completely unfold anymore. I have a master’s in library science that focuses on archival management, and I sew, and y’all? I FREAKED. OUT.

The thing is, my family doesn’t hate these quilts and want them to die. The recognize that these quilts are works of art, loving legacies from women long gone from us, and records of our ancestry, and they very much want to treasure them and preserve them for future generations–they were just doing an ass job of it.

Here’s how to not be such an ass.

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US Scientists have figured out a way to mass produce the nanomaterial graphene, opening the door to significant advances in the storage of hydrogen, as well as the electricity produced by solar and wind energy.

Graphene, produced by reducing graphite down to a sheet only one atom thick, is one of the strongest materials known to man. It has been shown to have huge potential for hydrogen and renewable energy storage, but up until now has been held back by a lack of supply. Now the team, based at the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA, have discovered a method of producing graphene sheets in large quantities.

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Scientists at Columbia University have discovered that a rock found in the Middle East can be used to soak up carbon dioxide at a rate high enough to significantly slow global warming.

The team found that when the rock, known as Peridotite, comes into contact with carbon dioxide it converts the gas into harmless minerals such as calcite. They have also worked out a way to ’supercharge’ the naturally occurring process to a million times its normal speed to grow enough of the mineral to permanently store 2 billion or more tons of carbon dioxide annually. This equates to an astonishing 7 per cent of the total global carbon emissions from human activity each year.

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Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have discovered a new way of storing energy from sunlight that could lead to ‘unlimited’ solar power.

The process, loosely based on plant photosynthesis, uses solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. When needed, the gases can then be re-combined in a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity whether the sun is shining or not.

According to project leader Prof. Daniel Nocera, “This is the nirvana of what we’ve been talking about for years. Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now, we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon.”

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However engineers and scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have made a breakthrough in the development of a new carbon-based material that they believe might allow for at least a doubling of current electricity storage capabilities. The new structure is called grapheme, and measures in at one atom thick.

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The local electric company, Missouri Public Utility Alliance, will purchase excess electricity when available. They will then supply power when there is not enough wind energy available. Excess wind energy will not be stored but rather fed into the city’s high voltage line, making it an intermittent source of power.

Several factors made this smaller scale project possible. The city has a bluff within the city limits with good resources, John Deere’s Wind Energy financing the project, and proximity to the power grid.

Related Posts on Renewable Energy:

What’s Holding Wind Power Back?

Solar Thermal Electricity: Can it Replace Coal, Gas, and Oil?

The Unlimited Potential of American Wind Power: AWEA

Planetthoughts: First Town in the US to be 100% Wind Powered

Offshore Wind: How Europe Plans to Meet Clean Energy Goals

A typical wind turbine has a generator that sits on the turbine (the nacelle), and the electricity from the generator goes down the turbine and onto the grid. General Compression places an air compressor on the nacelle that sends highly compressed air down the tower and into underground storage (like a cave or empty gas well) or through pipelines. The pressurized air can be expanded and released when needed to make electricity. According to the General Compression website, this power would be “the lowest cost per megawatt of any wind farm in the world." See a video of the technology here.

If this idea works, it would revolutionize the wind power industry. Using compressed air to store energy is not a new idea, but companies have been wary of pursing commercialized concepts in the past because of the cost and technology barriers. But with the cost of wind power falling and worries of fossil fuel prices increasing, there’s a renewed interest.

Josh Magee, senior wind analyst at Emerging Energy Research, told CNET news.com:

"If you could figure out a way to do it cost effectively and show [utilities] you can be very profitable at it…then you would have the ability to rapidly scale wind power. If all of the sudden you had capacity, you can make a bigger dent in climate change, energy security and make a significant contribution to peak demand."

Currently a prototype device of the air compressor exists and a large-scale version is being tested later this year. General Compression plans to test on a turbine in the field in 2008.

General Compression has to overcome quite a few hurdles to make this concept a reality, including finding appropriate sites for their wind turbines, which not only have to be located in windy areas, but also near geological formations suitable to storing compress air. However the company says that where the geology isn’t conducive to storage, underground pipelines could store 6-12 hours of a wind farm’s power.

CNETNews.com, via EcoToolbox.com
General Compression