By Susan Kraemer •
August 17, 2009
The U.S. Virgin Islands have a five times greater energy consumption per capita than the U.S. mainland. Oil fired generators provide the islands electricity. But it also has a great resource for renewable energy.
Two million of us feasting tourists a year leave a lot of leftovers. So much so, actually, that the territory has faced EPA fines for excess solid waste and has almost run out of places to put the 146,000 tons of garbage we leave behind every year.
The Recovery Act offers $8 million for renewable projects in the Virgin Islands, which has no renewable power as yet, despite abundant solar and wind potential. But the energy potential of all those leftovers might be even greater. And here’s a company that wants to use it:
By Yael Borofsky •
July 27, 2009
The city of brotherly love is now the city of brotherly BigBellies. While it’s not the first city to adopt BigBelly Solar’s cordless trash compaction system, Philadelphia’s installment of 500 new solar trash compactors represents the most “comprehensive” program seen thus far.
BigBelly Solar, originally the Seahorse Power Company, has also found homes for its 32-lb trash compactors in cities throughout 40 different states, like Boston, Chicago, and LA, as well as 20 countries worldwide.
Despite the joy of a World Series title, the Philly sits atop a $1.4 billion, five-year budget deficit. A solar-powered waste basket wouldn’t appear to be the obvious solution to the city’s financial woes, but by replacing 700 standard receptacles with the solar compactors, dubbed “eco-stations,” the city will save a tidy $875,000 per year.
By Moiz Kapadia •
July 24, 2009
Researchers at MIT’s SENSEable City Lab have developed smart tags to be attached to individual pieces of your trash and send its location back in real time.
Where did that candy bar wrapper go after you tossed it in your trash bin? Did that juice container with a #1 recycling symbol make it to the recycling center? As soon as we throw something away, we lose our connection to it. We don’t stop to wonder where the trash goes - does it get burned, go to landfill, or get placed on a boat?
These questions and more will be answered by Trash Track, an information system designed to monitor the path your garbage takes when it leaves your bin. Researchers at MIT’s SENSEable City Lab have developed smart tags to be attached to individual pieces of your trash and send its location back in real time. The mobile sensor is akin to a miniature cell phone, encased in a type of resin to ensure its durability throughout its journey. Since cell phone technology is ubiquitous and cheap, Trash Track should be able to capture the location of trash globally. The team is looking to expose the “removal chain” of trash.
By Andrew Williams •
July 24, 2009
Wales has launched one of the world’s most ambitious sustainability strategies, and aims to be “self-sustaining in renewable energy” by 2025, and waste-free by 2050.
The standard-setting targets are laid out in a new strategy called One Wales: One Planet - and immediately place the nation at the forefront of global green efforts, making it one of only three countries worldwide with a legal obligation to develop sustainably.
Commenting on the report Jonathan Porritt, Founding Director of Forum for the Future and Chair of the Sustainable Development Commission said, “Wales will set an example for the rest of the world to follow.”
By Susan Kraemer •
July 22, 2009
Let’s say you have a clothing company that supplies Walmart.
They’ve hinted for years that they are about to demand sustainably produced merchandise. And last week they announced it: Walmart’s new Sustainability Index.
Governments have been unable to change the world. But the planet’s shopkeeper is just so much more powerful.
Oh dear, you say. We can’t lose Walmart. Let’s answer the first question. 1. What is your carbon footprint?
Well, um…gee.
Let’s start with that one handbag we sell to Walmart: We make the handbag parts in 3 factories in 2 continents and an island. We receive the raw materials for the handbag…
1. by camel to that little handbag clasp factory outside Calcutta (5 miles X 120 days per year; camel eats 356,794 pounds of grain shipped by diesel ship 254,998 miles = carbon cost of 2 tons per year for inbound shipping costs),
2. by UPS to a factory in a business park in Seattle (2,900 miles X 340 days per year; using 57% diesel-hybrid trucks = inbound shipping carbon cost of 34 tons per year )
3. by airfreight to a little factory on Tuvalu (whatever…you get the idea)
and then we ship the finished product 3,900,798 miles by ship powered by… (and so on…)
…to say nothing of figuring out the carbon footprint at each of the factories:
By Susan Kraemer •
July 20, 2009
The Chinese government in Jiangsu province has signed a letter of intent with the fast growing solar cell manufacturer ReneSolar to supply the cells for a 500 MW solar project which will be one of the largest of its kind so far in China.
China produces about half of the world solar cell supply, but till now it has exported most of it. While the country uses more solar hot water than any other nation - solar PV installed in the country so far represents a mere 0.01% of the nation’s power generation capacity.
However, the Chinese government has put in place a renewable energy requirement to get 1,800 megawatts from solar by 2020, per their NDRC.
The Chinese solar company ReneSola is a global manufacturer; producing roughly 7 million wafers a month and supplying a number of leading solar manufacturers like BP and SunPower.
ReneSolar has a highly efficient and sustainable business model - - recycling:
By Gavin Newsom •
July 17, 2009
Last month, we launched our first iPhone app based on a city feed to help San Franciscans recycle 75 percent of the materials that would otherwise go to the landfill by 2010. Today, we are kicking off a new online effort (www.RecyclingMoments.org) to get us over this green goal line and help our city save resources, energy, and reduce pollution.
In San Francisco, we have led the country in creating ambitious yet achievable programs to help residents and businesses decrease the amount of waste going into our landfill. Our modern curbside program began back in the 80s with the crazy idea that people could recycle their newspapers.
By Jeff Kart •
July 15, 2009
“Clean your plate. There are people starving in Africa.” 
That’s what mom always said. But it turns out that leftover food also can feed a hunger for electricity.
A wastewater treatment plant in California is receiving support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to turn more food scraps into energy at a wastewater treatment plant.
The East Municipal Bay Utility District, or EMBUD, project [...]
By Susan Kraemer •
July 10, 2009
Up to 50 percent of all fuel burned in the US goes unused into our atmosphere as wasted heat; the US Department of Energy has found. The total, a mind boggling 7 quadrillion BTUs; exceeds the current output of all other US renewable sources - such as solar, wind and geothermal, combined.
We could use this potential waste heat capacity to generate 46 GWs of new, clean electricity annually.
By Susan Kraemer •
July 7, 2009
Look, I know we usually cover the innovative solutions that we humans invent here - but when nature itself comes up with a perfect solution to a really big problem; shouldn’t we cover that at Cleantechnica too? Shouldn’t we cover innovative NatureTech too?
The two most overwhelming technological problems of our age are that
- Because of the rapidity of climate change; ecosystems and species cannot evolve fast enough to avoid extinction.
- Our species uses more than one planet’s resources.
What will be left after just a century or climate change will be something as different from our current climate as the Jurassic period was; but it is happening millions of years faster. Even we humans are not adapted to that whole new climate that we are creating with climate change. Yet.
Image: Atomic Avenue #1 by Glen Orbik
It would be like moving to Mars next month for us. We’re just not adapted yet…
We know the problem: it’s big. And we have thought up some gigantic solutions to these problems we have created. But for a totally different kind of out of the box innovative thinking: — in news today from the BBC:
