Liquid Air Could Be The Fuel Of The Future

By Admin

Imagine owning a car that runs on air. Impossible, you reckon? Think again. The car in the video below does exactly this.

Scientists in Britain are developing a new technology that uses normal air to store energy by reducing its temperature to as low as minus 190 degrees Celsius turning it into liquid air. 

This is definitely good news especially with the ever increasing costs of fuel and environmental pollution issues associated with fossil fuels.

Sources: YouTube, Sky News

Chanel Invokes Green Energy of Fashion

By 'Lanre Okanlawon

Echoes of renewable energy were constantly heard earlier today in Grand Palais, Paris as Chanel sent her gorgeous fashion models on a blue solar panel pattern runway surrounded by towering white wind turbines at its new spring-summer look. 

Chanel Spring/Summer 2013

Karl Lagerfeld welcomed fashion enthusiasts, including Jennifer Lopez and her daughter, Emme to the grand show. “Energy is the most important thing in life”, he said enthusiastically, commenting about solar panels and wind turbines. If I had to build a house, I would put them in the garden,” he concluded.

How to Go Green

By Jacob Gordon

The cost of electricity is going up (both in dollars and in environmental and health impacts) and it doesn't show any signs of doing otherwise. About half of the energy in the American grid is coal generated. We won't bore you with what you already know: coal is a really stinky, dangerous, nasty, unsustainable, and silly way to make power. 

By using less energy, and greening the electricity that we do use, we can lighten our footprint immensely. The subject of electricity and its environmental impacts is a massive one and we can't cover every corner of it here; hopefully, this brief guide can offer some solid suggestions for greening your electricity and use thereof.

Audit yourself

A home energy audit is a way to inventory your home's energy use, where energy is lost, and where it can be saved. You can do an energy audit yourself or get a pro. Many utilities also offer home and business energy audits for free.

Reduce your use 

The lowest hanging fruit just begging to be picked are simple energy-saving practices. They're also the most cost effective. Top tasks include:

a. Replace your light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) or even cutting-edge light emitting diodes (LEDs).

b. Turn off lights and other devises when they're not needed.

Eliminating electronics that sleep on a standby setting; they continue to pull a current even when "turned off."

"Wall warts," those clunky AC adaptors on many power cables, pull current, too, so those should be taken out of the wall when not in use -- this is also known as phantom power. Your best bet is a "smart" power strip, or a power strip that can be turned off at night.

Clothes driers gobble up a lot of power, so line drying can be a great energy saver.

Put your house on a diet 

Homes consume an enormous amount of energy, especially in heating and cooling, and American homes consume around six times the world average. Once you've audited your home for energy use (even if you haven't) some simple moves can cut your electricity bill. Keep your house cool with natural ventilation instead of air conditioning as much as possible. Use in-room, ceiling, or whole-house fans to move air throughout the house. Blocking sunlight during hot hours of the day can help lower your cooling load. If your house uses electricity for water heating, wrapping your water tank in an insulating blanket can save on power. Also, if your house is heated with electricity, see How to Go Green: Heating for more in-depth advice.

The Heat Revolution

By `Lanre Okanlawon

It’s nearly here. The much awaited Renewable Heat Incentive!

After so many months of speculations, official papers have been released for the cash incentive scheme to “reward” households who key into the use of eligible “green technologies” for heating. The RHI will be in place to reward households who meet their space heating and/or hot water needs by using new and renewable energy technologies such as heat pumps (air source and ground source), biomass and solar thermal panels. At the moment, more than 1.5 million UK households use boilers and a recent poll suggests that at least one in every five household plans to replace their existing boiler.

The latest Government announcement indicates that the scheme will commence in summer 2013 and the subsidy payments will be paid over a period of 7 years. The rates are 6.9p-11.5p for air source heat pumps, 12.5p-17.3p for ground source heat pumps, 5.2p-8.7p for biomass boilers and 17.3p for solar thermal panels. These will be paid per estimated units of power generation in kilowatt hours (kWh).

For a house that has an air source heat pump (9kW) that costs about £8,000 to install, the owner will receive roughly £880 yearly in RHI payments for seven years, in addition to a continuous annual savings of about £390. This means the initial installation costs will be realized in about ten years!

Picture of the Week

A New Twist in the Energy Efficiency Story

By Elisa Wood

Blend a little new energy tech with a pinch of behavioral psychology and you’re bound to get something unexpected.

Consider what happened when New York City-based ThinkEco recently lead a four-month energy challenge for international industrial packaging company Greif.

The goal, of course, was to save energy. And that they achieved. Sixty employees in two Greif buildings cut their energy use 2,400 kWh over 10 weeks. But it was something else that made the challenge interesting, especially for businesses.

The story begins with the Ohio-based Greif already high on the sustainability charts.  The manufacturer, which had $4.2 billion in sales last year, reduced its energy use company-wide 10 percent between 2007 and 2010.

Further, Greif plans to achieve a 15 percent cut in energy use by 2015 and 20 percent by 2020 (measured by per unit of production with 2008 as a base year). The company also has aggressive goals to reduce greenhouse gases and landfill waste.

Having done the obvious to save energy, Greif was in search of the innovative. Enter The Modlet, developed by energy efficiency tech company ThinkEco (Thank you, ThinkEco, for not calling it a plug-load demand-side management optimization solution.)

The modlet is a small box that you plug into an electrical outlet. It comes with a USB port that goes into your computer. This sets up a wireless signal that allows the modlet to talk to your computer.  You plug an appliance into the modlet, and then your computer screen shows the energy use of the appliance.

Most interesting, from your computer you can control the power flow into the appliance, and even schedule shut offs in advance. For example, you might set up a schedule to turn off power to devices not in use on nights and weekends.

Using the modlet, ThinkEco arranged a competition between two Greif buildings, with a team of 30 employees in each. The project stems from behavioral research that indicates people are more apt to save energy when comparing their performance against others – one of several ideas emerging in the study of how and why we use energy.

Energy Saving Light Bulbs Taking Over

By `Lanre Okanlawon
The last few years have witnessed a gradual phasing out of inefficient light bulbs and the emergence of new and improved energy efficient light bulbs. This has been a worldwide trend and proven to be very worthwhile and practical as its positive impacts have been recorded globally. The gesture has been highly appreciated due to its tremendous impacts on numerous pockets, energy consumption and the environment. In other words, they can help you save money, energy and the environment.

Governments all over the world have realized the extent to which these new products of technological evolution can benefit their economy and the environment. In fact, many have taken practical steps to phase out traditional bulbs for general lighting purposes. Brazil and Venezuela initiated this in 2005. Australia, Switzerland and the European Union started the phase-out in 2009. Similarly, other countries already have future phase-out plans; Argentina, Canada and Russia in 2012 and Malaysia in 2014.  

Along the way, several myths have been shattered establishing the fact that energy saving light bulbs actually do us and the environment a lot of good. These new breeds of bulbs, by contrast, use the same efficient technology as fluorescent lights but are more compact and use far more less energy to light up an area. Voluntary initiatives have been on course in different parts of the world to phase out traditional light bulbs where there is a suitable low energy replacement. Advantages such as better quality of light, longer durability (they last 12 times longer than traditional light bulbs), more energy savings, cost effectiveness, recyclability and their brilliant aesthetic designs justify the switch.

In terms of quantifiable attributes these new class of light bulbs use up to 70% less electricity than traditional light bulbs but emit the same amount of energy. This means that you get to pay 70% less than you are currently paying for your light bulbs electricity bills if you use them. Good news, isn’t it?

But the news gets even better! Over the years, there have been tremendous improvements since energy saving light bulbs were commercially introduced, so has the way they look. As a matter of fact, there are varieties of stylish designs available to suit your aesthetic demands.

Energy saving light bulbs- these cleverly modified light sources may be rather modest, everyday objects, but there’s certainly more to them that meet the eye!

What a bright idea!!! J