Opportunistic Power

Using Satellites to Identify Offshore Locations for Wind Farms

Alex — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:01:09 +0000

From the Article here:

A Publication in the current issue of Geophysical Research Letters by a team of scientists from NASA’s JPL uses satellite data to measure the surface stresses over the oceans. Recent technological advances have made floating wind farms possible, but the key is putting them in the right locations.

I think this is really good use of technology but is it really feasable to deploy wind-farms in the ocean?

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Hawaii Now Requires Solar Water Heaters

Alex — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:44:24 +0000

From the Article here

The state of Hawaii has become the first in North America to require solar water heaters in new homes. The bill, signed into law by Republican Governor Linda Lingle this week, prohibits issuing building permits for single-family homes that do not have solar water heaters.

So what do you think? Should this be required elsewhere?

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7,000 Sq FT home with ZERO carbon footprint.

Alex — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:38:17 +0000

The design of the home, at nearly 7,000 square feet, is built with two-thirds less waste than traditional models and operate 80% more efficiently than similar sized home. It’s high-end luxury, but hey, if you can afford to build a home like this, there’s no reason to skimp on doing it as green as possible. The designers Diseño Earle hope to have the house available for purchase sometime in 2009

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Capturing Waste Heat from DataCenters

Alex — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 03:57:11 +0000

From the Article

Reusing the waste heat from a data center may not make the server room itself more efficient, but depending on how heat is reused, it can save a company a significant sum of money. In its report to Congress last year on data center energy consumption, the federal Environmental Protection Agency suggested the practice. And the idea has gained traction, according to Mark Fontecchio of SearchDataCenter.com.

So what do you think? Can we really capture the waste?

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US Freezes Applications For Solar Energy Developments

Alex — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:41:10 +0000

From the NYT Article:

Faced with a surge in the number of proposed solar power plants, the federal government has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies their environmental impact, which is expected to take about two years.

The Bureau of Land Management says an extensive environmental study is needed to determine how large solar plants might affect millions of acres it oversees in six Western states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.

Is this crazy or what! We finally get big business to embrace Solar energy and now we put the breaks!

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Volcanoes could supply up to 25 per cent of US power needs

Alex — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:12:59 +0000

From the article here : As fuel prices soar, Alaskan officials announced the exploration of the state’s volcanoes, saying they could be exploited to provide energy for thousands of homes.

Geothermal energy has long been harnessed in Icleand. Is it finaly time that it starts to meet the US energy needs? What would it take to make this happen?

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Mercedes to go Green. ALL Green. No Petroleum by 2015

Alex — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:41:15 +0000

In this article the author states:

In less than 7 years, Mercedes-Benz plans to ditch petroleum-powered vehicles from its lineup. Focusing on electric, fuel cell, and biofuels, the company is revving up research in alternative fuel sources and efficiency.

Wow, just wow. Can they do it? Are cars going the be of a regional variety based on the locally available power source?

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Low Cost Gas Engine Innovation Doubles Fuel Economy

Alex — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:37:45 +0000

Revetec, a little known company from the Gold Coast region of Australia, may be on to something huge: they’ve created an engine that is 50% smaller, 50% lighter, has 50% lower emissions and is cheaper to manufacture than a conventional internal combustion engine of the same horsepower. Oh yeah, did I mention that it doubles the fuel economy too. Original Article here.

This is a perfect example of using what you have available more efficently. So what do you think? Is this ready for the average consumer?

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Artificial tornado plan to generate electricity

Alex — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:07:56 +0000

From the article here: Most of us know that tornadoes are unpredictable, uncontrollable, and dangerous. But a Canadian engineer thinks they could be the future of electricity generation. He wants to make electricity from artificial tornadoes.

So what do you think? Could this work?

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20% of US Demand from Wind Power

Alex — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:00:33 +0000

This sobering report by the Department of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office suggests that for the cost of 4 Months in Iraq 20% of the energy needs of our counrty. Direct bennefits sighted:

Support of roughly 500,000 jobs in the U.S., with an average of more than 150,000 workers directly employed by the wind industry.

Increase in annual revenues to local communities to more than $1.5 billion by 2030.

Reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation by 25 percent in 2030.

Reduction of natural gas use by 11%.

Reduction of water consumption associated with electricity generation by 4 trillion gallons by 2030.

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