Wednesday, June 18, 2008

xFruits - 21st Century Regenerative Technology - 30 new items

SF Solar is Signed, Sealed, (Soon to Be) Delivered  

2008-06-18 22:29

Craig Rubens - Policy


Next to a 34-kilowatt photovoltaic array San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom signed into law the country’s largest municipal solar incentive program this afternoon. Starting July 1, San Franciscan residents can get up to $6,000 in rebates from the city to install a rooftop solar system. The city has revamped its online solar rooftop map so residents can estimate how much roof they have and how much it will cost them to go solar after all the federal, state and new municipal rebates.

The next step is to make the out-of-pocket cost zero, Newsom said today. He wants to create a municipal loan program to erase the upfront cost, allowing anyone to put solar up. Its another ambitious plan and it took six arduous months for the rebate program become law so don’t expect zero-down solar from the city any time soon.

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Clean Energy Tax Credits Make Government Money, GE Says  

2008-06-18 20:00

Craig Rubens - Policy


Democrats and Republicans both agree they want to renew the crucial renewable energy tax credits that make wind and solar development possible but can’t agree on how to fund the credits. But what GE says the legislators are missing is the fact that these tax credits actually put more money back into federal, state and local treasuries than they take out. GE Energy Financial Services and the American Council on Renewable Energy released a study today which says the production tax credit “more than pays for itself through tax revenues from the projects' income, vendors' profits and individual workers' wages.”

Using a model developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, GE estimates that the $2.5 billion in production tax credits the government doled out last year for wind will yield $2.75 billion in taxes over the lifetime of the wind projects — a $250 million return for the U.S. Treasury. And that’s just the federal government’s slice. GE estimates the wind industry generates $6 million a year in local property taxes, as well as $15 million in income taxes during construction and $1.5 million a year once turbines are in operation. So what do you say, Congress? Will you renew the tax credits now?

Unfortunately, it’s not looking good. Just yesterday renewal of the production tax credit, which benefits wind power, and the investment tax credit, which helps finance solar projects, died in debate. While it might be a good long term investment, Congress can’t agree where to get the estimated $7 billion over 10 years it would take to renew the credits.

Currently, the production tax credit subsidizes wind energy at 2.1 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) and is set to expire at the end of 2008. In the past nine years, the tax incentives have lapsed three separate times, each time resulting in a 76 to 90 percent drop in installed wind capacity from the previous year.

Figures courtesy of GE.

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Nanosolar Prints Thin Film Solar At 100-Feet-per-Minute  

2008-06-18 18:00

Katie Fehrenbacher - Startups


For all those that have been waiting to catch a glimpse of how Nanosolar has been printing its next-generation thin film solar cells, here’s some eye candy for you. The company, which started manufacturing in just December, put up this video clip of what the company says is the solar industry's first 1 GW production tool. The $1.65 million machine prints at an awesome 100-feet-per-minute pace and uses nanoparticle ink, which the company says is their secret sauce.

Nanosolar CEO Martin Rocheisen writes on his blog that the speed of the process makes the company’s printing “two orders of magnitude more capital efficient than a high-vacuum process: a twenty times slower high-vacuum tool would have cost about ten times as much per tool.”

The 1 GW annual capacity is also significant, as Rocheisen says that most solar industry production tools deliver closer to 10-30MW capacity per year. We’re not sure if this milestone will be maintained for the rest of the company’s production tools, or for its other plant in Germany. Update: Roscheisen tells us that the company’s plants are not standardized on 100 feet-per-minute because different processes run at different widths and degrees of parallelism.

While Nanosolar is ramping up its production capabilities, startups like HelioVolt and Miasole are also working hard on thin film solar production processes using CIGS (Copper-Indium-Gallium-Selenide). And the older chip and IT companies are moving in, too. IBM just jumped into the fray, looking to make CIGS in a joint effort with chip gear maker Tokyo Ohka Kogyo. We’re thinking the timing of Nanosolar’s video blog post — just a couple days after IBM’s announcement — is no coincidence.

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Rubber Recycling Startup Lehigh Gets Kleiner, Index Backing  

2008-06-18 17:02

Katie Fehrenbacher - Startups


What can you do with 6 million scrapped tires? Five-year old Naples, Florida-based startup Lehigh Technologies says that’s the amount of recycled tires they freeze, pulverize and sell back into the market as recycled rubber powder every year. That sizable business is getting interest from new investors — according to Venture Wire (via Pehub) Lehigh now has the backing of the green VCs at Kleiner Perkins and English firm Index Ventures. Pehub says previously the company raised $18 million led by Natural Gas Partners.

Lehigh has already been running a 83,000 square foot manufacturing plant near Atlanta, Georgia, since 2006. That plant can produce 100 million pounds of rubber powder per year. The company is trying to get another plant up and running this year that will produce another 100 million pounds per year; VentureWire says the company turned to Kleiner and Index to scale its manufacturing facilities. We’re waiting to hear back from the company on the details.

In addition to the profits Lehigh and the new investors are betting on, recycling tires has some pretty positive environmental gains, too. Lehigh says around 10 gallons of oil are used to make one tire, but if a tire is just made up by 10 percent of Lehigh’s recycled content, tire makers can save one gallon of oil for every tire produced. The company says that if every tire in the world was produced this way that would save over half a billion gallons of oil every year.

Currently Lehigh says the market for rubber powder is just 15 to 25 million pounds per year, but teh company says that’s only because supply has been so small up until now. The company predicts that the actual untapped market could be 1.7 billion pounds per year in North America and 3.4 billion pounds per year globally. Recycled rubber powder can be used to make new tires, and can also be used in paints, industrials coatings, sealants, plastics and fiberglass.

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SF Mayor to Sign Largest City Solar Program in U.S.  

2008-06-18 16:00

Craig Rubens - Policy


Last week we brought you news that San Francisco was oh-so close to getting the largest city-backed solar incentive program in the U.S.; all the project needed was the John Hancock of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Well, this morning the mayor’s office says the city’s solar incentive energy program will get the official signature today and could go into effect as early as July 1.

The program will dole out up to $6,000 per project in tax credits annually to San Franciscans who put solar on their roofs for a total of $3 million. This will make some solar system installations cost less than $10,000 — well within “credit card territory.”

The program is part of the city’s effort to become a solar leader. In an interview last week, Mayor Newsom told us his goal is to make San Francisco the American version of Berlin — a city that has both high solar generation and a strong solar industry, backed by aggressive city incentives.

It’ll be a long haul. Currently, the city has less than 5 megawatts of rooftop solar, the least capacity per capita of all the counties in the Bay Area. San Francisco officials hope that this $3 million a year in public funds will leverage an additional $1.5 million in private investment and fund 55 megawatts of distributed solar over the next decade.

Newsom will sign the legislation this morning at Project Open Hand’s solar rooftop near San Francisco City Hall, bringing together Newsom’s two big causes — solar and homelessness — in one perfect photo opp. We’ll check out the festivities and bring you the latest.

Photo Courtesy of Thomas J. Gibbons via the mayor’s office.

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Supercomputers Get Eco-Aware  

2008-06-18 15:00

Stacey Higginbotham - In the Lab


Twice a year, the computing world waits to hear whose processors and which vendors will claim the equivalent of a gold medal for building one of the world’s fastest supercomputers as measured by the Top 500 nonprofit. This year it was IBM’s $100 million Roadrunner machine, which can reach speeds of 1 petaflop (about 1,000 trillion calculations per second). It also consumes a whopping 3 megawatts of power.

But today’s is the first Top 500 list to ever track power consumption of these machines and the results are only semi-encouraging. The fastest computers, surprisingly, do not consume the most power. The average power consumption of a Top 10 system is 1.32 megawatt and the average power efficiency is 248 megaflops per watt.

Older machines on the list are using more power, but are just not as efficient. The average supercomputer on the Top 500 list has a power efficiency of 122 megaflops per watt. (The press release also says the average consumption of a Top 500 supercomputer is 257 megawatts — we’re pretty sure they mean 2.57 megawatts, but we’re waiting to hear back on that.) That actually gives me hope that all the energy-efficient chips coming out recently can help this problem.

Ironically, many of these computers are engaged in the very types of climate modeling programs or protein folding operations that could one day help the environment. It’s encouraging to see that the number of calculations per watt is trending up and that average power consumption seems to be trending down with newer machines at the top of the list.

However, the demand for power in these computers is crazy high (for comparison, an average desktop consumes about 80 to 150 watts), which explains why scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab are hoping to figure out a more energy efficient way to build a supercomputer using embedded processors.

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Green Campaign Watch: McCain & Bush Look Offshore for Oil  

2008-06-18 14:07

Craig Rubens - Policy


McCain headed to oil country Tuesday to speak in Houston, Texas, about his energy plan, which he announced would include a call to lift the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling. With gas over $4 a gallon, many Republicans are calling for a lift on the ban. The White House says President Bush will urge Congress to end the ban on offshore oil exploration — a band-aid solution to a hemorrhaging wound.

Meanwhile, McCain is trying to separate his energy policy from the President’s policies and has released a new commercial (embedded below) which says “John McCain stood up to the President and sounded the alarm on global warming five years ago.” There are images of plenty of wind turbines and solar panels, but no offshore oil rigs yet.

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Bob Metcalfe: Avoid the Pressure of the Green Bubble  

2008-06-18 07:00

Katie Fehrenbacher - Startups


Ethernet inventor turned cleantech venture capitalist Bob Metcalfe says a series of investment bubbles have swept up GreenFuel, the algae startup that he’s been leading as CEO for the past year. That would include not only the general global-warming bubble, which he says Al Gore has been helping to perpetuate, but also a biofuels bubble and an algae-to-fuel bubble. Man, that’s a sudsy market he’s been running in.

Which means he’s probably pretty glad to be stepping down from his post as interim CEO for GreenFuel. Metcalfe said on Tuesday that his company had finally chosen a permanent CEO ( see our story on that from yesterday morning) in former Dow Chemical exec Simon Upfill-Brown. Upfill-Brown starts July 23.

So what’s Metcalfe doing next? Well, he’s going to be spending more time investing in startups for the venture firm where he’s a partner, Polaris Venture Partners. Metcalfe tells us that for Polaris he’s already looking at another solar-cell startup (last March the firm invested in solar-cell maker 1366 Technologies), as well as both a geothermal and a nuclear firm.

Looking back, Metcalfe tells us that a major lesson he’s learned from running GreenFuel is, avoid getting wrapped up in an investment bubble — particularly when there are multiple bubbles surrounding your company. His advice to startups that find themselves in the midst of a bubble: Don’t let people think your startup is further along than it really is, Metcalfe says. “There’s a hazard of becoming a charlattan if a company responds to that kind of pressure.” Be strong guys.

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The Daily Sprout  

2008-06-18 00:44

Craig Rubens - Misc


EnerNOC Signs Up With TVA: EnerNOC has contracted with the Tennessee Valley Authority, the largest U.S. public utility, to provide a minimum of 110 megawatts of demand response capacity - EnerNOC.

UK Electrifies Cars with 'Elektrobays': EDF energy has started to roll out charging stations for plug-in electric vehicles at 9 Capital Shopping Centers. The infrastructure revolution begins, or rather, continues - Treehugger.

SOLON Acquires 19% of Estelux: German solar giant SOLON AG has acquired a 19.5 percent stake in Italian silicon startup Estelux s.r.l. for €360 million ($557.5 million). This move solidifies SOLON’s access to silicon and solar modules - Renewable Energy World.

Super Low-Energy Chip Chills in its Sleep: Researchers at the University of Michigan say they have developed microchip that uses 30,000 times less power in sleep mode than existing chips and 10 times less power when active - Cleantech Media.

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Report: Solar to Power 10% of the U.S. by 2025  

2008-06-17 22:00

Craig Rubens - Energy


Solar energy is one of the most abundant resources out there, but how much electricity can we realistically expect to get from it over the next two decades? A new study estimates that between photovoltaics and concentrating solar power, enough could be produced to meet 10 percent of the U.S.’s electricity needs by 2025. Currently, solar power accounts for less than one-tenth of a percent of America’s energy production.

The study, conducted by Clean Edge and Co-op America, contends that utility involvement is key. Utilities, with their access to cheap capital and long time horizons, are said to be indispensable to scaling solar; one industry insider is quoted as saying: “To really scale [solar] it's all about utilities."

But utilities will have to work with solar startups and energy regulators, each of whom has their own part to play. For startups, the goal is to “bring installed solar systems costs to $3 per peak watt by 2018,” according to the the report. Meanwhile, regulators need to fashion policy that allow utilities to develop large-scale solar projects.

The study predicts photovoltaics will maintain double-digit growth much the same way chips did over a two-decade period. At a compounded annual growth rate of 33 percent, installed PV could jump from 865 megawatts in 2007 to well over 200,000 megawatts by 2025. Meanwhile, with a growth rate of 28 percent, concentrating solar power could grow to over 40,000 megawatts.

And what would all of this solar cost? No more than what we’d have to “pay for more traditional and polluting sources such as coal- and natural-gas-fired plants, and we believe, considerably less than the price tag for a similar amount of nuclear power or coal power (in a carbon-regulated environment),” the study says. In other words, 250+ gigawatts of solar power by 2025 would cost between $450 billion and $560 billion, or about $30 billion per year. Edison Electric Institute estimates that utilities spent $70 billion in 2007 on power plants and distribution.

How much of those billions will solar startups see? And how many different solar players will be able to cash in? There is currently plenty of demand. The best bet for solar startups is to continue courting utilities and keep inking power purchase agreements with clean energy-hungry power companies.

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Riverwired.com: Green Free Stuff: Check Out This Freebie of the Week  

2008-06-13 05:00

RiverWired.com - bike

Saving money is critical these days. We want to help. And nothing says savings better than something that is absolutely free. Especially when it is something that will help you live a little greener.

This week's green freebie:
A Trek 1.2 bike from Penn Cycle's Trek, so you can really lower your carbon footprint and get in great shape to save the world. You have to act quickly – the deadline for this giveaway is June 23, 2008.

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Riverwired.com: H&M Has More Sustainable Fabrics!  

2008-06-13 04:00

ckane - Blogs

The Swedish-import clothing chain H&M hasn't just now jumped on the sustainable bandwagon, they began incorporating organic cotton in 2004 into some children's items and have eased into it ever since. Now, they're continuing with more organic cotton than ever (2,000 tons will be used this year, as opposed to 30 tons two years ago), as well as organic wool, recycled wool, and recycled polyester.

"We are now using organic cotton in all departments. We're proud that we're able to meet increased interest from our customers and at the same time contribute to the increased demand for organically grown cotton. Garments made from organic cotton include both fashion items and updated basics," says H&M Head of Design Ann-Sofie Johansson.

The organic cotton they use is all certified by the Control Union , and the retailer is also a member of The Organic Exchange, which promotes the growth of the organic cotton industry. In addition to stimulating the growth of the organic cotton industry, which can take a few years for each individual farmer who makes the conversion, H&m also hopes to improve the growing methods for conventional cotton.

That does it: shopping it H&M is no longer a guilty pleasure.

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Riverwired.com: On the Go? Charge Your Devices with a Solar-Powered...  

2008-06-13 04:00

jplatt - Blogs

Road warriors, are you always looking for a wall outlet to charge your cell phone, GPS, MP3 player or PDA? Well seek no further, my friends, because the outlet you need could soon be hanging from your shoulder.

The new Juice Bag ProFolio from Reware is the latest in a growing line of solar-powered bags that you can use to charge your portable devices. The ProFolio is about the same size as the briefcase you've got now, but it comes with a nice one-foot-square array of solar panels that add just half a pound of weight to what you're already carrying.

That extra weight can take some pressure off of you and make it easier to charge your devices on the go. Just plug your devices into the bag when you're in the car, on the plane, or in a meeting, and they'll be fully charged in 2-4 hours.

Sadly, the ProFolio doesn't pack enough juice (pun intended) to charge a laptop, although it is big enough to carry one. Maybe the next generation of bags will do better.

But until then, the ProFolio could be a flexible and affordable alternative for charging your devices. It's just $299 right now, although that introductory price will soon jump to $399.99.

Oh, BTW, the ProFolio is made out of recycled materials. Just in case that little bit of green information helps you make your buying decision.

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Riverwired.com: Reasons Why Anyone Can Go Solar  

2008-06-13 04:00

jchait - Blogs

One of my favorite books, The Solar Living Sourcebook, notes that too often people sort of whine about locating the perfect plot of land for a solar powered home, when really solar can work for every location, just to varying degrees.

They make a good point.

Obviously, there's more sun on a mountain in New Mexico then in a valley in Northern Oregon. However, there's still sun everywhere, and if you have sun, you have solar potential. Basically any amount of solar power your home can use is a good deal for the environment. Any amount you can use is just that much less used from non-renewable sources, and that much money saved.

The Solar Living Sourcebook notes the following ideas:

  • Anyone can utilize solar power to a degree. You have to use what you have, make the most of what's available, and use super smart before building planning.
  • Work with nature, not against it.
  • You don't have to accomplish great strides all at once. Simply working hard to reduce your dependency on your heater and AC is a good start. Learning to use less is a key point. Sure your plot may not produce enough solar power to have your electricity running 24/7, but should it? No one needs their lights or TV on all day.

Learn more about solar power:

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Riverwired.com: 3rd-Gen Prius Expected to Get 90+ MPG  

2008-06-13 04:00

khallgeisler - Bikes & Cars

Mark your calendars: the next-generation Toyota Prius is expected to debut next January at the 2009 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The Internet rumor mill has it that the car could debut in U.S. showrooms as early as April 2009 -- a mere three months after its official unveiling in Detroit. Toyota could even up the Prius's fuel economy to more than 90 mpg.

The engine is slated to grow from 1.5 liters to 1.8 liters, which means an extra 25 horsepower -- a noticeable increase. That might be enough to allow the size of the Prius to grow a bit and accomodate even a long-legged driver.

The increase in power doesn't sap the car's efficiency, though; rather, it should increase the mileage, too. U.S. News said recently the Prius 3G could get 94 mpg, while AutoBlogGreen reported a more reasonable -- and realistic -- 50-55 mpg. The EPA rates the 2008 Prius at 48 city, 45 highway.

If you can wait another year or two, Toyota has confirmed that plug-in Prius hybrids with cutting-edge lithium-ion batteries will be available to consumers in the U.S. in 2011. If you can't wait, hacking your Prius is the only way to go today, thanks to companies like Hymotion and Hybrids Plus.

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Riverwired.com: Save Gas: Auto Buying the Smart Way  

2008-06-12 04:00

khallgeisler - Bikes & Cars

The U.S. Enivironmental Protection Agency has a certification program, called SmartWay, that it set up to help buyers find cars with better fuel efficiency and lower tailpipe emissions. Though the ratings have been around for a couple of years, the designation has been slow to catch on with consumers. With gas as expensive as it is, though, it's smart to learn about SmartWay.

There are two levels of certification:

  • SmartWay: cars with a score of at least 6 out of 10 on air pollution and greenhouse gas tests, or a combined score of 13 or above in those two categories. Many of these cars are LEV II (Low-Emissions Vehicles) or ULEV (Ultra-Low-Emissions Vehicles) that get at least 20 mpg combined city and highway.
  • SmartWay Elite: cars that score 9 or above on the air pollution and greenhouse gas tests. These cars are either PZEV (Partial Zero Emissions Vehicles) or ZEV (you got it -- Zero Emissions Vehicles) that get a minimum of 31 mpg combined.

SmartWay vehicles number in the dozens and range from the Acura TL to the Volvo V50. There are fewer SmartWay Elite vehicles available nationally (California has a few more), and they're almost all hybrids. (The two that aren't hybrids are Honda Civics that run on compressed natural gas.)

What does that mean for you, the well-meaning and broke consumer? It means that if you're in the market for a different car -- new or used -- your first stop should be to the EPA's Green Vehicle Guide site. Any car built in the 21st century is rated and ready for you to browse. You can even check out your current car and compare its scores to that potential purchase.

Photo by undergroundbastard.

 

 

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Live webstream of Intel's "eco-technology great debates"  

2008-06-11 22:04

Ted Samson - Sustainable IT

I wrote about these debates the other day, and they're now under way. You can watch it live below. The debate about AC vs. DC has already started. Next up will be Air Cooling vs. Liquid, followed by Thin Clients vs. Managed Thick Clients.... READ MORE

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IBM makes Big Green push for modular datacenters  

2008-06-11 18:20

Ted Samson - IBM

Designing and building a datacenter has many pitfalls: There's time spent -- and often wasted -- as representatives from departments throughout the organization gather round the table and butt heads over the design of the new facility. There's also the wasteful practice of building more datacenter than you actually need, be it in terms of size, density, or redundancy. You end up stuck paying the bills to build and power that extra infrastructure without getting any return (until the time comes that you need it). IBM has set out to address these problems as part of the second phase of... READ MORE

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Riverwired.com: How to Recycle and Reuse Your Stuff ... and Save Money  

2008-06-10 06:34

jchatraw - All Green Books

I was at the park with my daughter along with my neighbor and her two kids. While the kids were sliding and swinging on the playground, my neighbor was telling me about how she's saving time cooking by making dishes where certain portions of the meal, such as the meat, can be used in another recipe for an additional meal. While I like cooking, the thought of saving time was very appealing to me.

And while the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" mantra has been pounded into my brain, I realized that the reuse portion oftentimes goes overlooked. Do I really stop and think about what I can reuse ... including meat from a recipe?

Thank goodness for people like Lori Baird and her book Don't Throw It Out: Recycle, Renew and Reuse to Make Things Last. This book has many great ideas about ways to do this with many different areas of your house.

Here are a few of Baird's tips on how to renew and reuse your refrigerator:

Spray the Trays. Sometimes an automatic icemaker just doesn't want to let go. The cubes don't spill out of the tray, so the machine's productivity grinds to a halt. To fix the problem, remove the icemaker's tray, dry it well, and then spray it very lightly with cooking oil. Wipe it with a paper towel so there's only a thin film of oil left, then replace the tray. The new ice cubes will slide out with no hesitation, and no, you won't end up with an oily beverage.

Reuse the Racks. If you're replacing an old fridge, save the racks and give them a new life. They're perfect for draining foods such as fried chicken (set over plenty of paper towels or newspapers, of course) or cooling cookies or biscuits.

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Riverwired.com: Saving The World One Plate At A Time  

2008-06-10 04:00

scleaver - Blogs

Choosing climate-healthy foods at the grocery store, with never-ending aisles of packaged foods, overflowing bins of produce from around the world, and walls of stocked freezer cases, presents an obvious challenge. But, a new study, discussed at WorldChanging.com, approaches this conundrum with one question: which is more important? The food you eat, or where that food is grown?

In short, the food you eat is more important. While local food is always a better choice than food imported from across the country or the globe, the next time you're planning your meals, the best thing you can do to eat climate-friendly is just say No to beef. Red meat, compared to cereals, chicken, dairy products, produce, and oils, has the largest impact on the climate. (If you want to take it a step farther, cut out dairy, it ranked second in the amount of emissions produced.)

A hopeful finding from the study: small shifts in food choices can have a huge impact on the climate. If we consumers switched 12 percent of our meat and dairy food choices to veggie-based foods, it would have the same impact on the climate as going 100 percent local for all food purchases.

Need help replacing that weekly burger?

Vegetarian Kitchen has information about eating a vegetarian diet.

VegWeb has vegan recipes and shopping tips.

The International Vegetarian Union has vegetarian recipes from around the world.

And, Vegetarian Cooking has even more veggie recipes.

Image from Runner's World article about eating vegetarian for performance.

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Riverwired.com: The Secret Energy Saver Even Bachelors Own!  

2008-06-10 04:00

ckane - Blogs

Ever since reading this article Microwave Ovens: the Curse of Convenience from Natural News.com, I swore off using the microwave. I'd only been using the microwave for reheating leftovers (and never nuking food when it's in plastic), but no more: I moved the toaster oven down from the top of the fridge and onto the counter, and I've been surprised to find myself using it every day since. It wasn't only for leftovers, though: I started firing up the toaster oven many other times when I would normally use the full-size oven. I realized this is a super-easy energy saver.

The U.S. Department of Energy confirms this hypothesis, saying: "A toaster oven uses a third to half as much energy as a fullsized oven." (Many other energy-saving tips from the DOE are available here.)

Cooking in the toaster oven also goes much faster. Obviously you won't be cooking any full-family lasagnes in there, but any time you need to, say, bake a marinade into your tofu or meat, or roast potato chunks for brunch, throw it in the Pyrex and pop it into the toaster oven.

 

Image: Home Depot

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Riverwired.com: Worst Places to Live? Top 20 Biggest Carbon Emitting...  

2008-06-09 23:23

Julia - Blogs

Top 20 Worst Carbon Emitting Countries in the U.S.

List comprised of the worst offenders based upon the Vulvcan system

This is a list of the top twenty carbon dioxide-emitting counties in the United States. It was created by a research team at Purdue University and headed by Kevin Gurney, an assistant professor of earth and atmospheric science. His project is called Vulcan, which is a scientific process that creates a kind of inventory of carbon dioxide emissions.

The crazy part – not a single region is left out! If you live in any of these areas, or even close by, start organizing and find activists like you who want to change these detrimental numbers! Good luck!

1. Harris, Texas (Houston) — 18.625 million tons of carbon per year

2. Los Angeles, Calif. (Los Angeles) — 18.595

3. Cook, Ill. (Chicago) — 13.209

4. Cuyahoga, Ohio (Cleveland) — 11.144

5. Wayne, Mich. (Detroit) — 8.270

6. San Juan, N.M. (Farmington) — 8.245

7. Santa Clara, Calif. (San Jose) — 7.995

8. Jefferson, Ala. (Birmingham) — 7.951

9. Wilcox, Ala. (Camden) — 7.615

10. East Baton Rouge, La. (Baton Rouge) — 7.322

11. Titus, Texas (Mt. Pleasant) — 7.244

12. Carbon, Pa. (Jim Thorpe) — 6.534

13. Porter, Ind. (Valparaiso) — 6.331

14. Jefferson, Ohio (Steubenville) — 6.278

15. Indiana, Pa. (Indiana) — 6.224

16. Middlesex, Mass. (Boston metro area) — 6.198

17. Bexar, Texas (San Antonio) — 6.141

18. Hillsborough, Fla. (Tampa) — 6.037

19. Suffolk, N.Y. (New York metro area) — 6.030

20. Clark, Nev. (Las Vegas) — 5.955

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Dell M-Series demonstrates its green credentials  

2008-06-09 20:13

Ted Samson - Dell

When Dell unveiled its M-Series blade systems earlier this year, the company pointed a very green spotlight on the machines, touting their high energy efficiency. That power savings stems not only from the machines' 90-plus percent efficient power supplies but an innovative cooling-system design and management software. The company certainly had a convincing green tale to tell, prompting me to do a deep-dive write-up in January. But the proof is always in the pudding, and Test Center Analyst Brian Chee had a taste just recently. In a hands-on test he did, indeed, find that system to deliver impressive energy efficiency:... READ MORE

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Hail to the energy chief  

2008-06-05 11:00

Ted Samson - Energy conservation

Who should be responsible for your company's energy initiatives? Your organization may be grappling with the answer to that question. Controlling IT energy consumption has become a high priority for many companies as a way to lower costs, maintain business operations, and reduce their impact on the environment. It can be a rather daunting challenge, given that so many areas of a company's IT infrastructure -- from the desktop to the datacenter -- contribute to power usage, not to mention that various departments have vested and sometimes conflicting interests in those operations (for instance, users want might want more computing... READ MORE

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Relieve gas pains with telecommuting  

2008-06-03 21:26

Ted Samson - Telecommuting

With gas prices continuing to soar (they've already crossed the $4 per gallon mark in my area), some companies are trying out a new strategy to help employees save some money while reducing their carbon emissions, according to Reuters: offering a four-day work week instead of five. At the right organization, it can be an elegant way to boost employee morale while doing something good for the planet. But I'm also still advocate of telecommuting, a topic I looked at nearly a year ago today. There's plenty of potential benefits to launching a telecommuting program at your organization -- including... READ MORE

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The million-dollar datacenter question: Tier II, or not Tier II?  

2008-05-29 11:00

Ted Samson - Datacenter development

Imagine, if you will, that you're planning a brand-new datacenter. Ah, the excitement! The anticipation! But oh, the costs ... Yes, they're going to be high, but at least you're now in an enviable position: You can determine your realistic anticipated needs for your new datacenter, which in turn will help you calculate how expensive it will be to construct -- as well as to power and operate after it's complete. I emphasize "your realistic anticipated needs" because it might be tempting to overshoot and insist on more redundancy, cooling, and bells and whistles than you require. That is, until... READ MORE

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Motorola holds U.S. patent for solar cells in wireless device displays  

2008-05-27 23:50

Ted Samson - Motorola

Apple has filed a patent for "integrating solar cells into portable devices by placing them underneath the layers of a touch-sensitive display," according to the IDG News Service. It certainly sounds like a promising application of solar energy. But is it really original? Not quite: Motorola received a patent of its own last year for "displays such as [LCDs], organic light-emitting diode displays, and touch sensitive displays are stacked with one or more solar cells." (You can read Computerworld's write-up about it here.) Now I'm no patent lawyer, but I don't see the difference between the patent Motorola has and... READ MORE

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Cassatt links server-power management with real-time demands  

2008-05-22 11:00

Ted Samson - Cassatt

Companies are becoming increasingly aware of the high costs of maintaining and cooling servers: A mid-tier $2,500 server can cost as much as $2,020 to power and cool annually, according to the Uptime Institute. Thus, demand for ways to curb those expenses is rising as well. Strategies such as server consolidation and virtualization are gaining momentum as a means of reducing server head count. Once you're down to as few servers as you need to meet peak demands, however, there are still inevitably times when you're wasting substantial energy powering idle machines that are waiting for something to do. That's... READ MORE

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HP: Goodbye copper, hello lasers  

1970-01-01 00:00

Ted Samson - HP

Imagine, if you will, an IT system connected not by copper-based electrical wiring but by optic laser communication links. Called photonic interconnections, the technology would make it possible to eventually fit hundreds of processors on server system chips while delivering 20 times the energy efficiency that's possible today. Led by R. Stanley Williams, senior fellow and director of HP's Information and Quantum Systems Lab, the Photonic Interconnect Project is one of three sustainable IT research initiatives announced today by HP. It's not clear when we might see the technology in action, but according to HP, it builds on years of... READ MORE

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AC or DC? Thin clients or thick? Intel to host green debates  

1970-01-01 00:00

Ted Samson - Green technology

With companies becoming increasingly aware of the potential cost savings and environmental benefits of green tech, some are mulling some big questions. Among them, which is the most efficient way to cool the datacenter, with air or liquid? Is DC power a viable alternative to AC? And can thin clients replace thick clients on the desktop? If any (or all) of these questions pique your interest, consider tuning in to the live Websteam of Intel's Eco-Technology Great Debates this Wednesday, June 11. If you happen to be in the Santa Clara, Calif. area that day -- perhaps in town for... READ MORE

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Posted by Chad S at 5:23 PM

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