Archive for December, 2011
Surviving Climate Change – Access to Land
Simon Dale, developer of explains the “Low Impact Woodland Home” (see below) explains his his form of “Future Ethics”.
Air-powered motorcycle has arrived
The new bike design by Australian developers uses a standard scuba tank which runs air compressed up to 200 bar giving a top speed of 100 kph (62 mph). The speed and range will increase with planned developments, including a tank with 400 bar capacity.
“A solar panel and a compressor now becomes your refinery and without huge battery packs to dispose of, we now have a low-cost to free powered bike with minimum impact on the environment.”
Solar Panels Made of Pokeweed Berries
A group at Wake Forest Universityi in Winston-Salem, North Carolina has developed inexpensive solar panels that use crushed pokeweed berries in place of silcon. Designed for locations that have no electricity at all, the panels produce 5-10 watts, enough to power lights and recharge devices.
A Deliciously Resourceful Town Aims For Total Food Self-Sufficiency in 7 Years
An amazing plan: to make Todmorden the first town in the country that is self-sufficient in food.
‘And we want to do it by 2018,’ says Mary Clear, 56, a grandmother of ten and co-founder of Incredible Edible, as the scheme is called.
Everyone plants vegetables everywhere in town – like on the police station grounds and by the train station. Surplus vegetables grown at the high school go on sale, with all proceeds going directly back to the school.
U.S. Solar Power 2011
The story of American solar power has been one of stunning success by just about any metric. Just yesterday, it was reported that the industry had a whopper of a third quarter: 449 megawatts of new solar capacity was installed in just 3 months! That’s the best quarter ever for U.S. solar. It brought us to more than 1,000 MW already installed in 2011 – the scale of a couple of coal power plants – with strong growth expected to continue in this last part of the year.
More than 100,000 Americans work in the solar industry, double the number since 2009. They work at more than 5,000 companies, the vast majority being small businesses, in every state.
The U.S. was a net exporter of solar products in 2010 by $2 billion, even to China. Solar power in the U.S. now exceeds 3,100 megawatts, enough to power more than 630,000 American homes.
Here is a quick action you can do to keep it that way.
From a Chris Mentzel facebook posting
SF Begins Down The All Clean Energy Path
By 2020, the city of San Francisco aims to get 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources – and it just got the green ball rolling by giving Local Power a $390,000 contract to design a plan for moving the city’s power sourcing from centralized fossil fuel plants and toward locally generated renewables.
Hawaii Can Show the Way to a Better Energy Future : Greentech Media
A guest columnist makes the case for geothermal in Hawai’i
Top Five Electric Vehicle Initiatives of the Year
Innovations on Maui are included in this list of Electric Vehicle initiatives.
Work & Learn, Free Plant Starts this Saturday @ Kihei School Garden
Work & Learn This Saturday
When: Saturday, Dec. 10
8 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Where:
Kihei Elementery School
250 E Lipoa St Kihei, HI 96753
South Maui Sustainability 