February 6th, 2010
The Future Is Here When Fun Finds The Green Innovation
Since May 2008 the innovative tide-harnessing turbine known as SeaGen has been securely in place, linked up to the grid, and turning the rapid ebbs and flows of Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough into green electricity. The largest tidal stream power device in the world it is the first tidal turbine to generate energy on a commercial scale and has been rated Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Arizona State University, axial flow, climate, ebb and flow, energy, environment, Evergreen State College, Everything Solar, gearbox, generating station, green, high and low tides, hydro electric, marine current turbines, Middlebury College, mwh, national grid, New York, Northeastern University, northern ireland, Princeton Review, reliable maintenance, rotations, rotor blades, sealevel, strangford lough, stream power, tidal stream, tidal turbine, tubular steel, University of California Berkeley, water, wind, wind turbine, Yale University
Posted in Going Green, Technology, go green | 5 Comments »
February 2nd, 2010
Revisiting A Forced Green Favorite
A year ago this week Forced Green posted an article on Unimodal System’s revolutionary SkyTran. Propelled along by magnetic levitation, the driverless 2 – 3 person vehicles are kept safe and secure on elevated guideways utilizing standard utility poles and universally available stock items. So, are we any closer to actually seeing the SkyTran in service? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: earth, environment, Environmentalism, Kids and Teens, money, School Time, Sustainability, Sustainable living
Posted in Uncategorized | 26 Comments »
January 30th, 2010
Gettin’ Your Kicks On A Green Route 66
The U.S. highway system is broken. We’re barely keeping up with the costs of maintaining our roads and bridges. A gamble we lose at times, with tragic results. New materials and technologies have to be found to replace our current archaic system. Well, now hear this — Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: archaic system, climate, country roads, energy, environment, Everything Solar, green, heating elements, interstate highways, plain dirt, potholes, project 100 000, prototype production, recycled water, residential streets, road surface, roads and bridges, sagle idaho, solar cells, solar collector, solar panels, surface layer, tragic results, virginia there is a santa claus, water, water bottles, wind
Posted in Uncategorized | 23 Comments »
January 26th, 2010
Helping The Environment On A Modest Budget
In 1738 English architect John F. Brondel developed the first flush valve toilet. Brondel’s invention utilized a valve to control the amount of water flushed with the simple push of a lever, making toilets more hygienic and allowed “out-house” toilets to be incorporated inside the home itself. Brondel’s innovations nearly 300 years ago have strongly influenced the bathroom as we know it today.
Fast forward to 2003, in San Francisco, California a new company incorporates themselves under the name Brondel Inc., in homage to John F. Brondel. True to the ingenuity of their namesake, the company has developed an innovative retrofit kit named Perfect Flush, to convert your conventional commode into an eco-friendly water saving dual flush model – yourself – in 30 minutes (15 minutes if you’re handy) – now for Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: added benefit, brondel, Building Types, Business, climate, commode, company founder, Construction and Maintenance, desired results, dual flush system, dual flush toilet, Energy Star, english architect, environment, Everything Solar, friendly water, Going Green, good water, green, green building, helping the environment, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, namesake, san francisco california, stewards, toilet tank, tons of money, tower style, U.S. Green Building Council, United States Green Building Council, valve systems, water, water bill, water shortages, wind
Posted in Going Green, Green Living | 25 Comments »
January 24th, 2010
We’ll Take This Texas T-Bone – Well Done – Not Rare
The Texas High Speed Rail and Transportation Corporation (THSRTC) is a not-for-profit corporation consisting of local transportation and elected officials representing cities, counties, rail districts and seaports along the South Central High-Speed Rail Corridor which have come together in a grassroots, collaborative effort to realize the first-ever high-speed inter-city rail passenger system and multi-modal transportation corridor connecting communities in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Lousiana, and Texas along the south central and Gulf Coast high-speed rail corridors. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: carrying capacity, coastal residents, colleges and universities, community colleges, disaster preparedness, dual track, energy, environment, evacuation route, Going Green, green, High-speed rail, innovative solution, inter city, natural disaster, passenger travel, rail corridor, rail corridors, rail infrastructure, seaports, sun, t bone, transportation corporation, transportation corridor, vocational institutes, water, wind
Posted in Going Green, Green Living, Technology | 10 Comments »
January 23rd, 2010
Want Some Green Energy With That New Roof?
In 2007, Dow Chemical received $20 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop “building integrated” solar arrays for the residential and commercial markets. Which lead Dow to form the Solar Solutions business unit and invest more than $100 million in solar solutions.
This past October the company unveiled its product called Powerhouse Solar Shingles, which can be nailed to a roof like ordinary shingles by roofers without the help of specially trained solar installers or electricians. The solar shingles should cost 30% – 40% less than other solar-embedded building materials and 10% less than the combined costs of conventional roofing materials and rack-mounted solar panels, according to company officials.
The majority of solar technology today is built around silicon-based solar cells, Dow’s technology uses a much more cost-effective and durable PV material called CIGS (Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide). The new thin-film technology is incorporated into the product by over-molding the cells with a proprietary Dow polymer formulation, resulting in a unique product design that has similar reveal, weight, and installation practices as an asphalt shingle.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: asphalt shingle, climate, conversion efficiencies, copper indium, crystalline silicon, dow chemical, electrical sys, environment, Everything Solar, Going Green, Health, installation practices, Julian Niccolini, Organizations, plug style, Politics, polymer formulation, Rip Van Winkle, roofing contractors, roofing materials, Society and Culture, solar arrays, solar cells, solar shingles, solar solutions, solar technology, style connectors, thin film semiconductors, thin film technology, thin films, united states, water, Will Hoge, wind
Posted in Everything Solar, Going Green, Green Living | 11 Comments »
January 18th, 2010
The Ability of Light to Produce Electrons, and Thus Electricity, Has Been Known For Over 100 Years.

At the Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Sandia National Laboratories, scientists have developed tiny glitter-sized photovoltaic cells that could revolutionize the way solar energy is collected and used. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 100 years, albuquerque new mexico, article, batteries, bottles, climate, creating, crystalline silicon, efficiencies, electronic devices, electrons, Enviro, envronment, Everything Solar, flexible substrates, foundries, go, green, greg nielson, hikers, human hair, laboratory, Manufacturing, microelectromechanical systems, micrometers, millimeter, murat, photovoltaic, photovoltaic cells, plastic, power generation, pv panels, recycling, sandia national laboratories, sandia researcher, solar energy, solar particles, solar power, Technology, Temperature, wafers, water, wind
Posted in Everything Solar, Going Green, Green Living | 17 Comments »