“Inslee’s legislation would require utilities — at the request of any new renewable energy facility owner — to enter into a 20-year fixed-rate power purchase agreement. Uniform national “renewable energy payment” rates would be set by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at levels that would provide a 10% internal rate of return on investment for available commercialized technologies in regions constituting the top 30^th percentile of renewable energy resource potential in the U.S..”

In plain English, this means that if you install solar PV panels on your home, the utility has to buy the electricity you generate at a higher rate than retail, guaranteeing you a return on your investment. Extending this power purchase agreement for 20 years gives everyone — especially those who want to invest in renewables or start a small business installing solar panels — assurance of return on their investment.

In Germany this has motivated citizens and businesses to put up solar panels wherever they can, allowing Germany to get 14.2 percent of its energy from renewable sources. Though Inslee’s legislation has little hope of getting through this Congress (they are still stalling on renewing the existing solar energy tax credits), FITs will surely be in the news more as the election season heats up.

Related Posts:

40,000 Solar Jobs in a Cloudy Country

Atlantic City Convention Center Plans Largest Solar Roof in U.S.

Image Credit: Carol Gulyas

I am a bit reluctant to call this plant a “first”, but I can get just as excited about the third, 10th or 100th plant in a progressive series of improved plants that should number 1000 reactors or more.

The plant, designated as HTR-PM, will be a 200 MWe pebble bed reactor heated steam plant with two reactors, each with a single steam generator (boiler) feeding a single turbine. The plant will be built in Rongchen City on a site large enough to host series of perhaps 10-12 similar plants. In that area of China, there are hundreds of older coal fired power plants generating 50-300 MWe each.

The HTR-PM is a carefully watched project that uses technology old enough to be new again. The concept was introduced in the late 1940s by Farrington Daniels who suggested the idea of combining uranium with graphite, which is a high temperature substance that also moderates neutrons, into small, discrete units that could be piled into a simple, shielded container.

This concept, known as the Daniels’ Pile, was a bit before its time. The material science available in the late 1940s could not provide the tight, vapor-proof coatings needed to ensure that all fission by-products remained sealed in the pebbles in all core conditions. That problem was addressed and overcome by the German project known as the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Versuchsreaktor (AVR) run in Julich from 1959-1988.

The AVR started operating in 1961, provided power to the grid in 1967 and was shut down after many years of testing and fuel developmental improvements in 1988.

The first commercial high temperature reactors

The AVR did not operate in isolation; during the same time there was a high temperature gas cooled reactor, built by Gulf General Atomics (now just General Atomics) and operated in the US at Fort St. Vrain. That HTGR was based on fuel in a different form, but it used fuel particles surrounded by layers of graphite and silicon carbide to provide the capability of operating at a significantly higher temperature and thermal efficiency than the conventional light water reactors.

I had the opportunity to visit General Atomics in 1994, before they decommissioned the fuel manufacturing facility that produced the Ft. St. Vrain fuel, and they gave me the pebble that you see here as a keep sake. It has been on my desk ever since.

The German group operating the AVR also built a commercial unit - Thorium High Temperature Reactor (THTR) - using fuel pebbles where some pebbles contained uranium-235 and others contained thorium-232. This fuel combination intrigued the designers because thorium is about 3-4 times as abundant as uranium, but it needs to be exposed to neutrons in a reactor before it can be used as fuel.

Unfortunately, though they were both commercial reactors, neither the Ft. St. Vrain HTGR nor the THTR operated for very long and neither led to any immediate successors. Good ideas, however, often incubate in the minds of problem solvers that see all of the potential and determine ways to solve the problems for another try.

China’s New High Temperature Reactors (HTR)

In 2000, the AVR rose up like a Phoenix in a new location at Tsinghua University with a new name - HTR-10. The Chinese had recognized the potential of the design and purchased essentially all of the makings including technical drawings, machinery, and consulting engineering services from the German owners. In January 2003, the HTR-10 began critical operations and testing. I have a number of friends and colleagues who have visited the facility and have been impressed. You can have a similar experience by watching a video produced by the Australian Broadcasting System titled Nuclear China.

There are many things about pebble bed reactors that fascinate me, but one of them is the fact that they can be configured to be able to withstand a complete loss of cooling without causing any core damage. As long as each reactor unit produces less than 400 MW of thermal energy, operators can turn off the cooling circulators and walk away knowing that the plant will heat up a bit, shut itself down, and never exceed a temperature at which any fuel damage will occur. Now that is a hot idea whose time has come!

The HTR-PM is capable of providing very high quality steam, identical to the steam produced in the most efficient coal fired power plants. In fact, Jim Holm has suggested that we could short cut the lengthy nuclear plant construction process by replacing boilers in existing steam plants with high temperature pebble beds.

It is one hell of a way to help solve the world’s most pressing energy challenge - how do we replace the low cost heat that coal provides to enable our modern economy without creating emissions that may overheat our planet?

Photo credits HTR-10 Schematic and simulated pebble fuel element from Rod Adams archives under creative commons.

Related Posts

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e2 energy: “Coal & Nuclear: Problem or Solution?”
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The CDC sent an e-mail warning about high levels of fecal coliform bacteria in water tested in 4 Iowa cities: Burlington, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, and Hamburg.  Increased levels of fecal coliform bacteria (types of bacteria that include E. coli) may indicate contamination from human or animal waste. The CDC did not report on drinking water; this is the water from the flooded fields.  Cedar Rapids had a particularly high bacteria level in its water because its waste water treatment plant is not working.

I’ll keep you updated on flooding, bacteria and water safety.  Just remember not to wade around in any Iowa farms.

Photo courtesy of Shannonpatrick17 at flickr.com

We have heard about China’s air quality and pollution woes recently in the media , especially as the start of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games approaches. A new report released last week adds yet another dimension to China’s environmental concerns.

According to a report entitled Beijing’s Water Crisis: 1949—2008 Olympics, published by Probe International, China’s policy of transferring water from draught-ridden neighborhoods to the nation’s capital in order to meet water needs for the upcoming Olympics is harming China’s environment and local farming economies.

Moreover, the abuse of water supplies contradicts the games’ “green” theme and supposed commitment to sustainability.

Beijing’s planning committee has promoted the concept of a “Green Olympics” by touting its support for planting trees, capturing rainwater to water indoor plants, banning plastic shopping bags and promoting the Olympic Village’s green buildings.

Still, to provide drinkable tap water in the Olympic Village, Beijing has been pumping water from four recently built reservoirs in the nearby rural province of Hebein, an already water-deprived area where water takings has meant less water for its citizens and farmers. Some farmers there have had to altogether halt the cultivation of certain crops. Those water transfers are likened to “quenching thirst by drinking poison,” as stated in a press release, because they have created more problems than done good.

Government officials claim that the transfers are necessary due to the combination of below-average rainfall, contamination in Beijing’s waterways and the rapid rate of development and population growth in the city. Officials even predict that more water will have to be diverted from other sources, such as the Yangtze River, by 2010 to support the needs of the growing city’s 17 million inhabitants.

Rather than continue to take water from nearby provinces and farming communities, the Probe International report recommends “better governance of water resources and the water industry, including restrictions on urban development and water-guzzling industries, enforcement of anti-pollution laws, tradable water rights, and UK-style regulation of water utilities.”

Probe International is a Canadian public interest research group that monitors the economic and environmental effects of foreign aid and export credit and has also published oral histories on Beijing’s water and the Three Gorges dam.

Photo: Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

In this 4-way battle royal to earn the title “The Best Washing Machine for You and the Earth According to Joe”, a variety of factors need to be considered. Water use, electricity use, size of family, and–of course–convenience all need to be given a good look. And even though I am of the mindset that we have way too many unnecessary conveniences in our society, I am aware that some conveniences have proven to be beneficial time savers.

In reading for this post I had to turn to No Impact Man to see what his thoughts were on the subject, because, unlike my familiarity with the reel mower, I have never used an alternative to the washing machine. I was surprised to learn his thoughts.

The laundry machine is the one appliance I believe makes the difference between a life of drudgery and not. If cars are the Devil, as I think they are, then laundry machines are God.

This quote will weigh heavily in my judging process.

Up first for review:
The Energy Star Washing Machine

PROS:
* Uses over 40% less water than a conventional washing machine
* Uses over 40% less energy than a conventional washing machine
* Can save you over $500 in operating costs over its lifetime (stats from www.energystar.gov)
CONS:
* Uses more water and energy than the models below
* More expensive than the models below

The Wonderwash
PROS:
* Requires NO electricity
* Will save almost 12,000 gallons of water per year compared to a conventional washing machine
* More gentle on delicate clothing than a washing machine
* Much less expensive than a washing machine (approximately $45)
* Uses up to 45% less detergent per year
* Sold out until mid-July on their website–so they MUST be good
* Requires at least 2 minutes of turning a crank
CONS:
* Requires at least 2 minutes of turning a crank (had to be a pro and a con depending on individual affinity or disdain towards crank turning)
* Requires hot or warm water
* Maximum load size is about half of a load for a conventional top loading washer
* Is made from plastic, so its durability is in question

The Basin (or tub)
No Impact Man cleaned his clothes in the tub before realizing how much he missed his washing machine. Bending over a tub or basin is much more difficult and time consuming than the Wonderwash, so if you desire electricity-free clothes washing, get a Wonderwash. If you don’t want to purchase plastic, or don’t want to shell out the 45 bucks then the tub is best for you. But, I’m guessing the Wonderwash may still be in your future.

The Future of Clothes Washing: Dry Cleaning in Your Home
I recently (June 16th) read Michelle Bennett’s article in Cleantechnica on a water free dishwasher. Well, it is virtually water free. It uses 98% less water than the normal washing machine (huge pro), therefore requiring less drying time (pro). However, since it won’t come to market until 2009 (con) I can’t report on cost, but I’m guessing it’s more than $45 (con). And, it still requires electricity (con).

The verdict:
Again considering No Impact Man called laundry machines “God” I will have to give the nod to the Energy Star appliance (barely nudging out the Wonderwash). However, come 2009, the water-free washer may be the best choice, but the jury is still out.

So, congrats too our winner (again my apologies to the late, great John Henry), and please remember to follow these tips when using your Energy Star washing machine!

TIPS:
* Always wash a full load
* Always wash in cold water–According to Energy Star: “About 90% of the energy consumed for washing clothes is due to heating the water.”
* Use plant-based detergents, free from petroleum and phosphates (better for our fresh water supply)
* Use a drying rack to dry clothes (I do have experience in the field of manual clothes drying. I lived in Portugal for two years without a dryer–it’s not a problem.)

More articles on environmentally-friendly laundering

The Laundry Room: Make it Green by Alan Greene, M.D.
Green Building Talk: Energy Efficient Appliances by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg
Canada Says ‘Yes’ to Clotheslines by Shirley Siluk Gregory

Image credits (top to bottom): Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons, Energy Star, Laundry Alternative Inc.

To help the Napa winemakers and wineries worldwide oversee their crop irrigation and management, Sebastian Payen and Thibaut Scholasch, of Fruition Sciences have turned the science of hydration monitoring into an art. The business partners’ techniques come from the marriage of research and technology that they have developed over more than seven years working at prestigious universities and with premier vineyards.

Using a proprietary technology, Fruition Sciences is able to monitor real time viticulture information and deliver the statistics via a web-based application to the winemakers instantly. The ability to monitor the vineyard status in real time allows vintners to make decisions about irrigation and canopy management that can have immediate repercussions as well as a long term effect on the crop.

The team is currently working with winemakers around the world in California, France and Spain to monitor vine conditions. Implementing this technology at some of the large producers worldwide could have an interesting impact on water usage and vine care and maintenance by leaving a little less up to chance and putting a little faith in technology.

Begun during the 2007 Jimmy Carter Work Event over six days last year, 16 local families now enjoy the fruits of their labor - homes built alongside more than 5,000 volunteers. Not only are the homes LEED Silver, but they have another enviable feature: they include access to solar energy. Collectively, the families’ energy bills are expected to be reduced by $200,000 over time (keep an eye out for a related story about the innovative installation at CleanTechnica.)

The area in San Pedro has come a long way since 2007, when the vacant lot overlooking the Port of Los Angeles was garbage-strewn and used only by drug dealers. At that time, the 16 partner families - soon to be homeowners - were selected based on need, their ability to pay back a zero-interest loan, and the willingness to commit at least 500 hours in “sweat equity” on their own or a neighbor’s home. The ability of these families to purchase a home here, in the city ranked last in affordability, is quite a sea-change from the status quo.

In addition to the solar systems, the buildings sport water saving features like low flow toilets and ground water retention systems. High efficiency lighting and programmable thermostats keep energy use low. Carpeting and insulation contain recycled content.

Although it may be just another day in the life at Habitat for Humanity, building green for families in need is an accomplishment worth celebrating!

Photo credit: Habitat for Humanity; Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former President Jimmy Carter

It All Depends On Who You Ask

Las Vegas Water Offical Warns Radioactive Levels Rising

Sunday’s news was a bit disconcerting, when I read a small story at Tri-State Online.  Pat Mulroy, head of the Southern Nevada Water Authority was quoted as saying measurable quantities of uranium are showing up in Colorado River water, something difficult and expensive to remove before passing it on to consumers in Las Vegas.

She blames upstream uranium mining, especially in the Moab, Utah area, so I decided to take a look and see what’s happening up there.

To the best of my knowledge, there are no operating uranium mines in or near Moab, UT, or anywhere in the state of Utah.  So, I felt Ms. Mulroy was referring to the uranium mill tailings just outside Moab, where they’ve been for decades after the failure of the Atlas Minerals Corporation mill.

Well, the 16 million tons of radioactive dirt is still there, but according to Moab Mayor David Sakrison, they are no danger to the community or the river.

In a phone interview, the mayor said the federal government has done an exemplary job of mitigating dust and water runoff that would contaminate the Colorado.  Sakrison did say, however, this has been the case for the past eight years, and before that, Colorado River water was indeed being polluted.

Had the tailings pile presented a health risk to his community, especially through it’s drinking water?  “No”, said the mayor, “our aquifer is on the other side of the Colorado and our water supply is not contaminated.”

It was in 2000 that then Energy Secretary Bill Richardson promised to relocate the tailings pile, and Congress had given the Department of Energy authority to begin cleanup.  President Bush, however, included NO money in his 2000 budget for the removal project.

Cleanup About To Begin at Moab

Donald Metzler, Federal Project Director for the Moab cleanup, told me everything is in place to begin transporting the contaminated soil to a storage area at Crescent Junction, Utah.  The site is about 30 miles north of Moab, and is in a formation called Mancos Shale bedrock, a hard, almost impenetrable formation that will isolate the site from any aquifer.  After all the tailings have been removed from the Moab site and placed in storage, it will be capped and should be safe for at least 1000 years.

I asked Mr. Metzler about the possibility that the tailings were still polluting the river, and he assured me there is absolutely no contamination.  He said tests from a few hundred feet south of the Ajax site showed no increase in radiation other than background, caused by nature.

Taking my query a bit further, some 500 miles, I spoke with Mitch Basefsky, PIO for the Tucson Water District, and he assured me they are monitoring the level of radiation in water coming into the area from the Colorado River via the Central Arizona Project.  Basefsky said they have not seen a change in water radioactivity over the years, but remain concerned that eventually, if nothing is done to stem the release of radioactive materials into the river, it will become a problem here.

So, Where’s The Radiation Coming From?

Southern Nevada’s Mulroy has supposedly written federal Interior Secretary Dick Kempthorne, asking him to “carefully evaluate” further uranium mining along the Colorado to determine the risk of further contamination of the river.

I’ve tried for days to get someone in her office to talk with me about her statement and what they’re finding in the water near Las Vegas, but no one has been forthcoming, and I can find nothing on the SNWA website concerning the issue.

There are no operating uranium mines in Utah, and according to Mayor Sakrison, most of the abandoned sites have been cleaned up, and clean water is leaving the Moab area.  What’s the problem?

Grand Canyon Exploration and Possible Uranium Mining

While writing this story, word came to me from the Sierra Club, stating the House Natural Resources Committee has ordered the Bush administration to immediately stop mining claims on public lands surrounding the Grand Canyon.  Good news, because of fears that pollution from uranium mines could threaten the drinking water for more than 25 million people living in the southwest, and just the idea that mining operations are going on within three miles of the canyon is unthinkable.

Until I hear something concrete from the folks in Nevada, there appears little or no danger at this time from uranium-polluted Colorado River water.

Stay tuned.

Links to Related Articles:

Uranium Mining Claims in Grand Canyon Area Ordered Withdrawn

Does Sen. John McCain Approve of Proposed Uranium Mines Near the Grand Canyon?

Federal Judge Blocks Uranium Mining Near Grand Canyon

Our Discussion Forum:
Nuclear Energy, Good or Bad?

Image Source: http://flickr.com/photos/53074617@N00/2242825510

]]> http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/06/25/is-colorado-river-becoming-radioactive-from-upstream-uranium-mines/feed/ http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/06/23/contaminants-in-flood-waters-threaten-food-part-i-who-is-watching/ http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/06/23/contaminants-in-flood-waters-threaten-food-part-i-who-is-watching/#comments Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:03:34 +0000 Sarah Pressman Lovinger http://planetsave.com/?p=2611 Farming near a river bed is a great idea until it floods.  Soil near riverbeds tends to be more fertile, producing more abundant crops.  But when the river beds flood and drench contiguous farm land, the water can drag unwanted contaminants to the farmland, exposing health risks to anyone eating the crops from the flooded land.  What kinds of contaminants?  Anything in the flooded water: machine oil, sewage, garbage, medical waste, manure.

As a Midwesterner and a doctor with an interest in both public health and food, I really wanted to find out who in the federal government was monitoring food grown on flooded farms to make sure it stays safe, and then blog about it.  So far, I have not found the federal agency responsible for monitoring the safety of food grown on flooded farms.  I checked first with the Centers for Disease Control, but the spokesperson there said they only monitored disease outbreaks after they had started occurring.  She suggested I call the Environmental Protection Agency.  The woman I spoke with in media relations at the EPA here in Chicago also said that her agency was not responsible for food safety, only environmental toxins (I kind of thought they were linked), and suggested I call the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  Now FEMA has gotten a bum rap since they kind of forgot to rescue tens of thousands of people in New Orleans when that city floodedin 2005, so I decided to give the agency a break and not push too hard.  I asked a FEMA spokesperson in Wisconsin about food safety, one of the states hit hard by flooding and she set me straight: “We normally don’t even deal with that issue.”

So now I am asking you, dear Planetsave reader:  Can you help me learn who is keeping our food supply safe?  Please contact me with your suggestions in the comment section.

Photo thanks to Shannonpatrick17 at flickr.com.

We are all familiar with touch-less faucets, which not only decrease infection rates but keep lazy people from letting the water run as they brush their teeth. Great idea, but an idea that requires electrical energy or a battery to run the infrared sensing device. Now Toto, the Japanese company that makes simple, elegant, and water-saving bathroom fixtures, has developed a touch-less faucet that also saves energy.

The EcoPower faucet contains a small turbine inside. The turbine, powered by the water running through the faucet, creates an electrical current that is stored in rechargable cells. The faucets supply the very energy they consume by using the flow of water to spin a high-efficiency turbine to both create and store power. Eco Power replenishes its charge with as few as 5 uses per day, and with as few as 10 uses a day, the backup battery itself is seldom used and can last up to 19 years. Elegant!

Related Posts on Saving Water and Energy:

• Wash Clothes without Water
• Seven Ways to Save Energy by Saving Water
• Teatro del Agua: the Seawater Greenhouse that “Can Change the World”

Expo 2008, the international exposition on water and sustainable development, opened its doors to the world on Saturday in the Spanish city of Zaragoza.

Situated along Spain’s largest River, the Ebro, the 62-acre expo aims to inform people on global water issues and serve as a discussion forum for advocates and international policy makers. A goal of the expo is to produce a “Zaragoza Charter” which will detail recommendations to address such issues as access to clean water, water scarcity, water wars, and water conservation.

The exhibit represents 105 countries and features Europe’s biggest fresh water aquarium, a 250-ft water tower and 140 pavilions themed around the world’s different climate zones.

Throughout the exposition’s three-month run, it will include 5,000 musical and theatrical shows, art displays, films and games, as well as 2,00 expert speakers.

Speakers at the expo include Mikhail Gorbachov, Rigoberta Menchú, Marina Da Silva, Pedro Arrojo, and Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai.

Some environmentalists, including Greenpeace, denounce the Expo for the thousands of square meters of roads, buildings and bridges built supposedly in defense of nature. They claim that such urban development goes against the ethos of conservation.

One cab driver was quoted, “Zaragoza was stuck, dead, and this will be fantastic for infrastructure and tourism.”

Hopefully the Expo will influence people to enact water conservation measures, just as much as it is planned to benefit the city’s tourism budget.

Photo: Expo Zaragoza 2008 logo

Washing with soap and water has been THE WAY to clean most clothes for so long, it’s hard to imagine reducing H2O by 98%. What this technology lacks in sexy bells and whistles, it gains in implications. Billions of gallons of clean water could be conserved every year simply by adopting this dry cleaning technology. Less water also means less drying, which can add energy savings to those with energy-hungry clothes dryers.

The process uses plastic granules, which tumble with your laundry and a little water and detergent. The plastic absorbs the dirt or grit and can be reused for up to six months.

“A range of tests, carried out according to worldwide industry protocols to prove the technology performs to the high standards expected in the cleaning industry, show the process can remove virtually all types of everyday stains as effectively as existing processes whilst leaving clothes as fresh as normal washing. In addition, the clothes emerge from the process almost dry, reducing the need for tumble-dryers.” (Source)

The company bent on developing this technology is called Xeros, which started out of the UK’s University of Leeds School of Design. Professor Stephen Burkinshaw is the founder of Xeros, and hopes to use £500,000 in funding to bring a product to market as soon as 2009.

Dry cleaning companies have already shown interest in the technology, especially in areas with growing concerns over solvents involved in some dry cleaning techniques. Let’s hope this technology is affordable and spreads like wildfire.

Image via GoodCleanTech.com

Though many states and localities are waking up to their water shortages and taking steps to plan for “peak water”, people generally continue to waste water and to ignore the energy-water link. In 2004 the Natural Resources Defense Council did a study in conjunction with the Pacific Institute called “Energy Down the Drain” on how saving water saves energy. We need to do more to spread the word. Here are seven ways to save energy by saving water:

1. Use local water.

Transporting water uses energy, so rainwater harvesting is a serious water-and-energy saver. According to the NRDC/Pacific Institute study “California’s State Water Project (SWP), which transports water from Northern California to Southern California is the state’s largest single energy user, consuming 2 to 3 percent of all electricity. It takes tremendous amounts of energy to pump the water 2,000 feet over the Tehachapi Mountains — the highest water lift of any water system in the world

2. Use less heated water in homes and businesses.

Heating water uses a great deal of energy. Small things magnified a million times over — like washing clothes with cold water or taking shorter showers — saves large amounts of energy.

3. Use energy-saving appliances.

Energy Star appliances will decrease water and energy use.

4. Learn from Australia.

Why reinvent the wheel? Since 2006, when the BBC reported Australia’s biggest drought in 1,000 years, the situation has not improved. In an island nation, this has a tendency to focus the mind, and water-and energy-saving inventions have been pouring forth from that country, while the government introduces policies that save energy and water almost daily.

5. Rethink your bathroom.

Toto, an innovative company from Japan (another island nation concerned about water use) offers an EcoPower hands-free faucet that recharges itself each time it is used.

6. Rip out that lawn and replace it with a rain garden.

Watering grass, fertilizing it with petroleum-based fertilizers, and mowing it with a gas or electric mower…..need I say more?

7. Eat more vegetables and grains; cut down on the beef.

Animal farming takes more energy and water. “Beef production requires large volumes of water–as much as 100 times that required to produce equivalent amounts of protein energy from grains.” (Environmental Health Perspectives, 2002 And the cows are fed from corn that is farmed using energy-hogging fertilizers, insecticides, and fossil fuels.

If you think about it, it’s impossible to separate our energy use from our water use. If we can start thinking holistically about the systems we use in our daily lives — and get our governments to create policies that promote wise use of energy and water, we’ll be more ready for the limits to resources that are only going to increase.

Posts Related to Saving Energy and Water:

All You Need to Know About Water Saving Technology Around the House
Could Wind help Save Water?
Low-Energy Water Desalination From Seawater Greenhouse
Water Crisis: Clean Tech to the Rescue?

As a writer on global writer issues, I wasn’t quite sure what to do when my writing colleagues at EcoWorldly suggested that we all contribute to a series on bicycling.

Bikes and water: could the two really be related? To my pleasant surprise, they are indeed!

I learned about several organizations dedicated to providing people in developing nations with the means to get clean water through the use of bicycles.

One group from the Engineering for Developing Communities (EDC) program at the University of Colorado at Boulder developed a prototype of a human powered bicycle for pumping water in communities where electricity is unavailable. Their model was able to pump at a maximum of 18 feet below ground, at 2.5 gallons per minute. The specifics of their project is detailed here.

Another great organization I found online is the Working Bikes Cooperative, a Chicago-based nonprofit that takes old bikes and repairs them to donate to charities in Chicago, the Gulf Coast, Cuba, Guatemala, Ecuador, and other places of need. The primary purpose of the donated bikes are to provide affordable and healthy transportation to people from underdeveloped nations, but other bicycles are used to create water filtration systems in communities plagued with unsanitary water.

I also found a company called McEdwards Manufacturing and Distribution, Inc. that sells a “Third World Water Pump” setup, which supposedly can pump clean water from wells with depths of 200 feet or more.

And here’s a quite informative and inspiring video on a pedal-powered water transportation and filtration vehicle created by a San Bruno, California team which won Google’s “Innovate or Die Pedal-Powered Machine Challenge” this year:

Aquaduct: Mobile Filtration Vehicle YouTube Clip (1:59 min)

The neat-looking bike filters the water as you bike from point A to point B.

What a concept! I’d love to get my hands, and legs, on one of those!

Other Articles in Ecoworldly’s Bicycling Series

• Forget Sky-high Gas Prices, Biking Beats Them All! by Sam Aola Ooko
• UK: Bike Week 2008 by Pem Charnley
• Bicycle powered water pumps and filtration systems by Nayelli Gonzalez
• Italy’s Two-Wheeled Cities Speed Up Your Life Quality by Eva Pratesi
• In Chiang Mai, Social Attitudes Crush Bicycling Prospects by Masimba Biriwasha
• Google’s Sexy Bicycle Giveaways and Africa’s Versatile Bike Trucks by Sam Aola Ooko
• South Korean Bicycle Ninjas Do Battle Against Asthma by Gavin Hudson
• Of Course Cycling in Australia is Healthy, But What To Do With the Cars? by Ross Kendall
• Cheer up! Bicycling in Italy is a Daily Adventure by Eva Pratesi
• If You Want a Blissful Sex Life, Don’t Ride a Bike! by Sam Aola Ooko
• Bicycling in Peru: An Art of Adaptation by Levi Novey

Photo: Working Bikes Cooperative

The porcelain gods are angry with you.

This is the story of my hard lesson about living sustainably in America in 2008, which has since transformed my approach to the sustainable living project.  It came in the form of a toilet.  

The World Health Organization recommended in its 2000 report on global water that “at least 20 liters per person per day from a source within one kilometer of the user’s home” be considered the basic measure of rightful access to fresh water[1].  Of course, fresh water natural resources vary from region to region.  Because of local resources like watersheds and rivers, the amount of fresh water that an individual can sustainably consume each day is probably significantly higher in Western Pennsylvania than it is in Ethiopia.  Nevertheless, lacking this data and expressing my empathy for water-strained populations across the planet (1.1 billion lack appropriate clean water access[2]), I decided that I would accept for myself the measure of 20 liters of water use per day.

One flush of the common public bathroom American Standard toilet at the university’s bathrooms uses 13.2 L of water.  To my dismay, I did the math in my head… that left 6.8 L of water for the whole rest of the day.  As I washed my hands at the sink, my heart sunk.  I would probably use more than 6.8 L that day.  I hadn’t counted on the importance of flushing of a single toilet.  And that was just one flush.  The average person visits the bathroom between six and eight times a day.  That’s at least four times one’s sustainable water usage–wasted on only your personal waste!

Using a composting toilet and conserving water when washing myself, my clothes and my dishes, I am typically living well under a 20 liter per day quota.  This is positive: it illustrates how sustainable living isn’t some far off dream, but rather, possible and normal, right now.  (There are also low-flush toilets that, while still using water, only use .9 to 1.6 gallons per flush.  Plus–you just don’t have to flush each time).

On the other hand… putting myself in a situation that means absolutely NO access to such water conserving mechanisms, such as when I go downtown for a few hours a day to work on producing and editing the Sust Enable episodes, spells disaster for a goal of sustainable living.

In Garbage Land, Elizabeth Royte’s 2005 wake-up call about our national waste systems, she documents the process of municipal sewage collection and treatment… and by doing so, naturally illustrates its absurdity.  She muses about “…how little sense it makes, when our population is so large and our clean water supply shrinking, to dilute our solids with water and then, at great expense, separate the two” (227).

On May 1, 2008, that awareness was driven home.  My dream of proving how easy and carefree living 100% sustainably as an American could be, was rapidly flushed away.  

Then, I began to see how my objective should change.  Now, my goal is to learn  how to live 100% environmentally sustainably.  It is not instantly possible for any American to achieve a 100% environmentally sustainable lifestyle that is, within itself, self-sustaining.  However, my hope is that it is still possible to innovate that lifestyle–with the right research, applied practices and original transition period.

Sure, I felt silly about being defeated by a toilet.  But now, the victory will be mine.  I will work to put obsolete, yet common systems like these where the belong–down the drain.

“The consumer advocacy group is working with cities across the nation to urge local restaurants and chefs to sign a pledge to switch to serving only tap water, help educate customers about the benefits of tap over bottled water.”

Participating restaurants in the program are:

Memphis, TN
Circa
Stella
Boscos Squared
R.P. Tracks

Boulder, CO
Sunflower Restaurant
Turley’s
Leaf Vegetarian Restaurant

Durango, CO
Turtle Lake Refuge
Carver Brewing Co.
College Drive Café

Omaha, NE
Dixie Quicks Magnolia Room

Madison, WI
Lombardino’s Restaurant
Harvest Restaurant

Ann Arbor, MI
Zingerman’s Roadhouse
Café Verde Fair Trade Coffee Bar
Weber’s Restaurant

Albuquerque, NM
The Frontier Restaurant
Mario’s Pizza

Image via Food & Water Watch

Seawater Greenhouse inventor Charles Paton teams with the Eden Project and Grimshaw Architects to create the Teatro del Agua.

I last posted on the Seawater Greenhouse in February. After writing that post I felt hopeful that this type of desalination plant would catch on, yet pessimistic that, based on the pictures I saw, it would neither reach the necessary scale to create enough clean water nor attract the type of investors needed to take this plant to the next level.

I’m very happy to find out that I was wrong.

I researched the Seawater Greenhouse again to look for breaking news because I decided back in February that I needed to post on this on a regular basis to spread the word on the technology. By the looks of the Seawater Greenhouse Inventor Charles Paton’s latest project, my effort will not be needed.

Just as the Prius will replace the Hummer on our nation’s roads, the Teatro del Agua shall replace the energy intensive desalination plants of old, worldwide. All the while supplying said world with an endless supply of water and creating an outdoor venue for theatrical performances. Afterall, you can’t spell WATER without A-R-T. (below average pun–my apologies)


The Teatro del Agua requires no fuel to create its massive amounts of freshwater. It will instead rely on the sea, sun, and wind to create the energy needed to create the water. The technology is quite amazing. Watch for yourself on this YouTube video. The only thing left to report is exactly how much water will be created–the video states “enough for a city” (New York or Cincinnati?).

The planet has reached a tipping point and I believe Paton when he claims this project has the potential to “change the world”, and that “solutions to water also solve the problems of the planet”.

image credits: Grimshaw Architects