Author: Megan Treacy

The EPA and the International Maritime Organization have announced stricter emissions regulations for ships operating in the waters off the coast of the U.S. and Canada.

Starting in 2012, ships within 200 nautical miles of the shores will either have to use cleaner, more expensive fuel that contains less sulfur or be equipped with scrubber devices that clean the sulfur dioxide from the exhaust.  By 2016, new ships will have to use advanced emissions control systems.

California already implemented an emissions control zone within 24 nautical miles of its shore last year and ships have tried avoiding the area.  These new rules extend the control zone along most of North America and much farther out to sea, so avoidance won’t be an option anymore.

The EPA says the emissions controls will reduce U.S. NOx emissions by 1.2 million tons annually and particulate matter emissions by 143,000 tons annually.

via Green Inc.

We’ve all been waiting to hear what exactly Nissan has meant by “competitively priced” when describing the LEAF.  Well, now we know.  The all-electric sedan will have a sticker price of $32,780, slightly more than expected, but still pretty cheap for an EV.

At that price, the LEAF is a good $10,000 more expensive than gas-fueled sedan models like the Honda Civic, Toyota Camry and Nissan Altima, but cheaper than announced prices for EV models like the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Coda Automotive’s sedan and far below the nearly $60,000 Tesla Model S.  Plug In America calls the price a “game changer” and I’d have to agree.

Not convinced?  Here’s more to consider.  The price includes the installation of a home charging station, it will be available for lease for $349 a month (not too shabby when you compare it to the mortgage-sized lease payment for the Tesla Roadster) and once you apply federal tax credits, you’re actually looking at a $25,280 car.  If you live in a state like California that’s offering an additional $5,000 rebate, that price drops to $20,280.

Now you’re in the territory of a base model Toyota Prius.  The cost of a hybrid, but it’s all electric.  I have a feeling there are people at GM right now recrunching the numbers for the Chevy Volt.

via Nissan and Earth2Tech

FedEx says it will be the first U.S. delivery service to add all-electric trucks to their fleet.  Starting in June, the company will enter four EVs into service in Los Angeles.

Two of the trucks will come from Navistar, based on a design the parcel service already is using in Europe.  FedEx has 10 EV vans in London and five scheduled to enter routes in Paris.  The other two trucks are coming from a yet unnamed company.

FedEx plans to eventually have electric charging stations powered by solar arrays or even the Bloom Energy Server at its various locations for its electric fleet to juice up.

While it slowly transitions to all-electric vehicles, the company is making good use of hybrid technology.  They’ve been converting old trucks into hybrids and their Bronx, NY outpost exclusively uses hybrid vans.

via Press Release

A boat aptly called the Plastiki, made out of 12,500 recyclable plastic bottles filled with carbon dioxide, has set sail for a great voyage through the Pacific.  While it seems like an extreme stunt, the journey has more of a purpose than just seeing if a plastic boat can make the trip.

By now, many of us have heard about the giant collection of floating plastic known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  The large aquatic dump is located in the North Pacific Gyre, one of the five major vortices of currents in the world’s oceans.  It is twice the size of Texas and contains billions of tiny pieces of plastic.

The boat’s crew including David de Rothschild, Jo Royle and David Thomson came up with this interesting way to draw more attention to the tons of plastic that make it into our oceans.  They constructed the Plastiki to tour the Pacific Ocean, teaching us about recycling and lowering our consumption along the way.

The team will take approximately three months to reach Sydney, Australia from San Francisco, heading straight through the garbage patch.  They will also visit other environmental hot spots including damaged coral reefs and low-lying island nations threatened by rising sea waters.

Read more…

An egg-beater-like vertical wind turbine design could potentially double the output of wind farms by using the space between larger, horizontal turbines.

Wind farms take up a lot of land because the large rotating blades of the turbines need a lot of space in between them to operate safely and effectively, but company Wind Harvest International thinks wind energy could be generated in those empty spaces.  The company claims a MW array of their shorter, vertical turbines could fit in the space between two horizontal MW turbines.

The Wind Harvest turbines work in groups of three or more to maximize their energy output.  The turbines alternate between clockwise and counter-clockwise rotation, creating a vortex that accelerates the localized wind speed by almost double.  The company says it’s also possible that the arrays could boost the energy output of the larger horizontal turbines as well, but that more testing would have to be done to confirm that.

Other than utilizing all of the land in a wind farm, the vertical turbines could also act as a back-up for the horizontal ones.  In extreme wind speeds where large turbines have to be shut off, the vertical turbines could keep generating electricity.  The company also plans to market a turbine for low wind speeds.

Wind Harvest plans to have 25 and 75-kW versions available commercially in 2011.

via Greentech Media

China’s high-speed rail plans get more ambitious by the day.  Not satisfied with having the world’s most advanced and extensive rail line in the world, China is now planning to connect its rail system to 17 other countries in Asia and Eastern Europe where it will join the European rail network.

China plans to have this massive project completed in 10 years.   The rail system will include three major continent-crossing lines running at 200 mph.  One line will connect London to Beijing in a two-day trip and continue on to Singapore.  Another will link Vietnam, Thailand, Burma and Malaysia.  The third will connect Germany to Russia, go across Siberia and back into China.

With travelers able to take major routes like these at high speeds, air travel may become a lot less necessary across Europe and Asia.

China will be financing the project in exchange for access to natural resources from the 17 countries the rail lines will run through.  As an example, Burma will provide China with lithium for its rail connection.

via Daily Telegraph

A new washing machine design uses 90 percent less water and reduces utility bills by 30 percent by cleaning clothes with tiny plastic beads.

The machine by UK company Xeros Ltd uses 3mm-long nylon beads that can get into all crevices and folds of clothing and absorb stains and dirt.  Stephen Burkinshaw, a polymer chemist at Leeds University, discovered that nylon beads at 100 percent humidity could attract stains away from clothing and into the center of the beads, preventing deposition back onto the clothes.

The machine uses a small amount of water to dampen the clothes and to reach the right humidity level, then the drum is flooded with the beads.  When the cycle is complete the beads drain away with the water to be reused hundreds of times.

I’m sure you’ve already started questioning what happens to these plastic beads once they’re done scrubbing clothes.  The company wants to eventually create a closed loop where the saturated beads can be refreshed and reused in the machines, but for the time being they will be collected and recycled.

Xeros says that if all of the U.S. used these machines instead of regular washing machines, it would save 1.2 billion tonnes of water per year and the CO2 emissions saved would equal taking 5 million cars off the road.  The machine would also eliminate the need to dry clean many delicates, another environmental benefit.  The Xeros machine is expected to be available by the end of next year.

via Guardian

Usually when you read about concentrated solar power, it’s referring to some large project destined for the Mojave Desert, but Syracuse’s Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems (SyracuseCoE) has set out to prove that this technology can be used in smaller, colder settings.

SyracuseCoE in Syracuse, NY is itself a LEED-platinum-certified, 55,000 square-foot building that serves as a testing ground for renewable energy and efficiency technologies.  The south wall of the building is home to a concentrated solar facade that, at first glance, resembles the frosted cube walls found in doctors’ office waiting rooms.

This 8-foot by 8-foot facade houses several clear pyramid lenses that track the sun and concentrate the rays onto high-efficiency PV cells.  Extra energy not converted to electricity is used for heating water and radiant heat in the building.  And because it’s made up of clear panels, it also adds natural lighting indoors.  You can watch a video of the system at work here.

Using a concentrated solar power system in an architectural application is a new concept, so the center will be monitoring and reporting on its performance.

The facade was designed by the Center for Architecture Science and Ecology and the company HeliOptix is licensed to market it.

via Jetson Green

A new report from technology research corporation iSuppli warns that we’re facing a global LED shortage in 2010.  Hooray!

Why am I cheering?  Because the reason for this shortage is a huge surge in demand for the energy-efficient lighting in the electronics industry.  Yes, it’s bad that the supply is low, but it’s great news that the use of more efficient lighting is becoming more mainstream.

The report says that demand for LEDs is expected to rise by double-digit percentages for at least the next three years.  In 2009, 63 billion units were consumed out of the 75 billion unit capacity worldwide.  The worst-case scenario is a rise in prices for mid-range and high-end computers and HDTVs because of their larger displays.

The solution is simple enough though:  increase production.  The two largest suppliers have gotten the hint — Aixtron and Veeco Instruments are doubling their production by the end of this year.

via PC Mag

In case you thought that after all the setbacks, T. Boone Pickens was giving up, he’s reminding us that he’s still around and he still has a plan (albeit a different one) to free America of its dependence on oil.

In a recent interview with the Houston Chronicle, Pickens outlined revisions to his original plan that was big on wind power and natural gas-powered cars.  To sum it up in five words:  less wind, more natural gas. 

Here are his main points:

• Natural gas prices have fallen 70 percent in the last year making it more attractive than wind financially.
• He’s still committed to wind energy, but thinks even if we add wind power, we’ll need natural gas to act as a back up until there’s better power storage.
• Discovery of more natural gas shales has lead him to believe that now is the time to amp up its use in generating electricity and converting 18-wheelers to run on it.  Doing so would decrease oil demand by 2.5 million barrels a day.
• He believes Congress will pass an energy plan by Memorial Day, hopefully including the Natural Gas Act that would support converting trucks and fleet vehicles to the fuel.

I agree that power storage is a huge hurdle wind and other renewables have to overcome if we want to start replacing fossil fuels with clean energy, and until we get there, having natural gas fill in those gaps isn’t a bad idea, but I am disappointed that he’s lost the huge enthusiasm he once had for wind energy. 

It was nice having an ex-oil tycoon dreaming big about wind.

via Houston Chronicle

Researchers at the University of Michigan have unveiled their latest breakthrough:  A tiny solar power system that contains a processor, battery, and solar cells all in 9 cubic millimeters!

The miniature system measures 2.5 by 3.5 by 1 millimeters — 1,000 times smaller than any comparable commercial system.  It’s extremely energy efficient and the scientists say that it could almost operate perpetually if the battery didn’t have to be replaced after many years.

The system uses an ARM processor — a popular, widely-used processor which will make commercial adoption of this technology much easier.

The system could be remodeled to generate power from movement or heat instead of light, making it fit for a variety of uses.  Like the small, flexible kinetic-energy harvester we profiled a last month, the scientists also see this device serving as a power source for medical implants like pacemakers.  Other possibilities include powering environmental sensors that track air and water quality and motion sensors for buildings, homes and bridges.

The good news is that the researchers are already working on commercially developing the system.  With a host of possible applications, who knows where this itty bitty power generator might end up.

via University of Michigan

EcoGeeks love robots. And recycling. So, what could be better than a robot that helps us recycle?

Osaka University and Mitsubishi Electric Engineering Co. have designed a robot with laser-sensing technology that can distinguish six different types of plastic from all other garbage.  The 5′ 6″ x 6′ 9″ machine identifies the plastic materials by analyzing the reflectivity of five different wavelengths of lasers on the garbage.  Once it identifies the material, it sorts the garbage into different piles.

The purpose of the robot is to streamline the recycling process and increase the amount of plastic that gets recycled.  Often confusion about what types of plastic are recyclable versus non-recyclable results in lower recycling rates in Japan, where people have to sort all of their plastics.  With this robot taking care of that sorting, people could more confidently recycle.

Only one prototype robot currently exists and is undergoing testing in Japan.  Smaller versions of the robot are expected to go into production soon and will sell for around $55,000.  With that steep price tag, the robot would probably be better suited for commercial and industrial purposes.  I can’t see many people paying that much to have one at home.

via Telegraph

Today, President Obama announced the details of the HOMESTAR program, otherwise known as “Cash for Caulkers.”  The president said the home retrofit program would create construction jobs, reduce the nation’s energy use equal to the output of three coal power plants, save participating households $200-$500 per year in energy costs and support energy efficiency innovation.

The program basically includes rebates for energy efficiency improvements that are given at the time of purchase, much like how “Cash for Clunkers” worked. 

Here are some details of the program.

• Small-scale upgrades like insulation, duct sealing, water heaters, HVAC units, windows, roofing and doors would be eligible for 50 percent rebates up to $1,500 or combined upgrade rebates of up to $3,000.
• Entire-home retrofits would be eligible for a rebate of $3,000 towards an energy audit and upgrades amounting to 20 percent energy savings.  Any savings over that would be eligible for more rebates.
• Safeguards would be put in place to ensure that the upgrades actually improve efficiency:  All contractors must be certified in energy-efficient installations and independent auditors will perform surveys to make sure upgrades were installed correctly and are saving energy.
• The program would also help state and local governments create financing options for these retrofits so more consumers can participate.

The program will have to get through Congress, but hopefully with the promise of boosting the economy and creating jobs, it will be attractive enough to legislators to pass.

via White House release

Bourne Energy has created a portable hydroelectric generator that weighs less than 30 pounds and can be worn like a backpack.

The appropriately-called Backpack Power Plant is capable of generating 500 watts and can quietly produce electricity from a stream four feet or deeper.  To install the generator, the user digs a trench on either side of the stream or river for two lightweight anchors.  A rope connects the anchors to the generator, keeping it afloat through tension.

It performs best at flow speeds of 2.3 meters per second, but can work at a variety of speeds.  It produces no heat or exhaust emissions.

Bourne has designed a more-powerful and lighter version for military use in remote locations.  The civilian version will sell for $3,000 and could be used in developing countries or by any hydroelectricity enthusiast.

via Wired Science

Google announced last year that they were working on new technology that would make solar thermal energy cheaper than coal.  Just a few months later, they have a prototype and expect a product to be ready in as little as a year.

Google’s energy czar, Bill Weihl, said the company is focusing on redesigning the mirrors, using alternative materials on the reflective surface and the substrate on which the mirror is mounted.  The new technology could halve the cost of building a solar thermal plant and bring the cost of the electricity down to 5 cents/kWh or less.

The prototype is being internally tested before more rigorous external testing, but two solar companies, BrightSource and eSolar, are already interested in the technology.  Google is a major investor in both companies and has said if the prototype works, the companies would use the technology.

via Reuters

If you’ve been yearning to own a Tesla Roadster, but can’t afford the six-figure price tag, the car company will start leasing their popular electric sports car for a minimum of $1,658 a month, meaning you probably still can’t afford it.

The three-year, 30,000-mile contract requires $12,453 at signing, which includes a $9,900 down payment and a $895 acquisition fee.  Then at the end of the lease you’ll need to pay a $350 disposition fee and $.25 for every mile you go over the 30,000 mark.  Plus you’ll owe for any wear and tear on the vehicle.

So, what could possibly be the perks of this fee-laden lease agreement?  During the lease, you have full access to the Tesla Ranger service squad that will make house or office calls to perform inspections, firmware upgrades and maintenance, and you have the chance to drive the sexiest EV on the planet before they halt production in 2011.

Could those reasons make a car lease that costs as much as a mortgage worth it?  Well, that’s up to you.

via Earth2Tech

TXU Energy, a large Texas utility company, will lease rooftop solar power systems to their customers in the Dallas area.

Homeowners can sign up for the program with TXU and their partner in the project, SolarCity, will design and install the systems.  After tax incentives, an owner of a three-to-four bedroom house would owe about $35 a month for a lease, though for $26,000 they could buy the array outright.  When leased, SolarCity continues to own the array and performs any maintenance.

Currently, the state utility infrastructure company Oncor has funds to offer rebates on about 400 home installations, but SolarCity expects the program to grow quickly over the next five years.

This is not the first program like this in the country making residential solar affordable for homeowners, though it is the first one run by a utility.  The state of Connecticut and the cities of Berkeley, San Diego and Palm Desert have all started solar financing programs for their residents and a California non-profit organization started a statewide financing program.

via Green Inc.

BrightSource Energy, Inc has received $1.37 billion in loan guarantees from the DOE for 400 MW’s worth of solar thermal energy projects through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

With the funding, the company is constructing three utility-scale concentrated solar plants that will make up the Ivanpah Solar Complex. Located in the Mojave Desert on federally-owned land, the complex will be the largest in the world and will double the capacity of installed solar thermal in the country.  It will produce enough electricity to power 140,000 California homes.

The first plant will start construction this year and be completed in 2012, while the other two have completion dates of mid-to-late 2013.  PG&E and SCE have entered into long-term agreements to purchase the power generated by the plants.

BrightSource was one of the companies with renewable energy projects biding their time in the Bureau of Land Management approval process glut.  We’re glad to see such a large project make it through and to get federal financing support as well.

via DOE

British Airways has announced that it will start producing jet fuel from landfill waste to reach its target of 50 percent reduced emissions by 2050.

The airline is partnering with biofuels company Solena to construct a waste-to-energy fuel plant in East London that will turn 500,000 tonnes of organic waste into 16 million gallons of jet fuel per year.  The fuel will be made by treating the the waste in a high-temperature gasifier to create BioSynGas which is then converted to jet fuel using the Fischer Tropsch process.  The plant will also create a by-product of 20 MW of electricity per year and have the added benefit of keeping waste out of landfills.

British Airways is only committing to use a 10 percent blend of the biofuel at this point, a disappointment when you consider the successful test runs of 50/50 bio-jet fuel blends.  The airline plans to start using the fuel by 2014.

via Treehugger

For those in the wind power business, or those considering jumping in, last week brought some big news.  A new study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that the U.S. could theoretically generate 37 million gigawatt-hours of wind power per year, triple the amount previously thought.

The last study of wind power potential, completed in 1993, came up with an energy potential of about 10.8 million GWh.  According to NREL, the reason for the dramatic jump is better wind technology (taller and more powerful turbines) and better data used in the assessment.  In case you’re wondering, environmentally-protected areas were not included as potential sites.

The new number is over 12 times the amount of energy we consume each year.  Americans consume 3 million GWh of electricity each year and in 2008 only 52,000 GWh came from wind.

The study offers great new maps of wind energy potential across the country, highlighting areas with high wind speeds, access to transmission lines, cheap land and other major factors for would-be wind farm developers.  The maps, created by Truewind, have a resolution of 650 feet, less than the spacing between turbines, so developers could use them not just to located the best area for an entire farm, but for each machine.

via Wired