For Your Halloween Viewing Pleasure!

This guy is really good at his occupation/hobby. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Halloween …. as the green future unfolds.

Bob Barman rebuilt the Highland Chevron gas station and Extra Mile convenience store in Beaverton, Oregon.

bloomberg

His goal being “net zero”, he has done a commendable job. He has installed more than 180 solar panels on top the pump station canopy and store roof, tapping sunlight to meet about a third of a typical gas station’s electricity needs.

Then installed a geothermal well that plunges 426 feet below ground, exchanging heat through groundwater. Naturally cool water helps run the Extra Mile’s bank of refrigerators. Water pipes gather heat that cooling units extract and store it far underground as hot water. (more…)

The Impact of Trucking on the Environment

Pretty much everyone is now aware of the fact that greenhouse gas emissions in automotive exhaust are responsible for holes in the ozone layer and the global warming that is melting polar ice caps and wreaking havoc on weather patterns. (more…)

Mother Nature At Work

This is really neat! The local people are utilizing Mother Nature’s wonder of fig tree roots to build a living bridge for future generations. Of course, future generations must tend to it so that it continues its majesty. Enjoy!

Is that not cool or what. Very ingenuous if you ask me.

Mother Nature …. as the green future unfolds.

National Geographic’s Great Energy Challenge

National Geographic

Ever since the Valdez disaster, there has not been an improvement in the oil spill recovery technology until now.

Shell sponsored this event that was started in July and lasted until last week. There were 350 applicants and then there were 10 top finalists. Team Elastec, an Illinois-based veteran company in the oil spill cleanup business, developed giant grooved discs that skimmed oil more than three times better than the industry standard to capture the $1 million top prize in the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE.

Elastec/American Marine company of Carmi, Illinois, and Cocoa, Florida, deployed a system that slurped oil in the test tank at a rate of 4,670 gallons (17,677 liters) per minute, with an efficiency of 89.5 percent. (Only 10.5 percent of the oily mix in the recovery tanks was water.)

Second prize of $300,000 went to Norway’s Team Nofi, which deployed V-shaped flexible boom to capture 2,712 gallons (10,266 liters) per minute and an efficiency of 83 percent. None of the other teams achieved the competition minimum recovery rate, so the $100,000 third prize was not awarded, and will be returned to the X PRIZE Foundation for further contests focused on marine and ocean environmental issues. But the third and fourth place teams, OilShaver of Norway and Team Koseq of The Netherlands, both achieved recovery rates and efficiency rates in excess of the 2,000 gallons per minute and with efficiencies of about 90 percent.

All of the technologies tested have the possibility of helping improve oil spill response.

Here is a short video of what the National Geographic challenge.

There is still oil from the BP spill, a year ago, that could use these technologies. The best thing is that there are options to choose from. Maybe they will get started next week on utilizing these new innovations.

Oil Spill Recovery … as the green future unfolds.

Oregon Field Guide: Wind Turbine School

Go to a classroom three hundred feet in the air to learn all about wind turbines and what it takes to keep them spinning. As more and more wind turbines come on line in north central Oregon, Columbia Gorge Community College’s Renewable Energy Technology program is training the local workforce to meet the need for skilled technicians who can repair and maintain these technological marvels.

I do not think this is the job for me.

Wind Turbine …. as the green future unfolds.

Cargohopper is the Solution for the City of Utrecht

cargohopper

The Europeans are constantly working on improving the conditions of their cities and here is an example.

Cargohopper is a vehicle that is able to tow 3 metric tonnes in a linear line by means of a 48 Volt 28 hp electric engine. Its max speed is 20 kilometers an hour but that is more than enough as it is only driving in the inner city of Utrecht and does not make more mileage than 60 kilometers max daily. The three trailers are steered on both axles which gives it a great maneuverability.

Driving on green power, Cargohopper is designed for the delivery of packages (not for pallets) an is able to do the work of 5 to 8 regular (European sized) vans as there are Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and so on. It can do that because Cargohopper is a more than a nice looking little train, it is a complete logistic system. The three containers you see, are in fact separate boxes that can be put on and of the undercarriages by means of a forklift. 8 of those boxes fit on a European sized trailer of 13.60 meters. The boxes are preloaded outside the city in the Cargohoppers Distribution Centre and towed to the boarder of the inner city by means of a regular truck. There we have a transhipment point where the boxes are put on the Cargohopper and rolled into the pedestrian zone: from there the deliveries to the shops starts. That is very effective, Cargohopper never leaves its ‘natural habitat’, and the reloading is done within 10 minutes. So it is almost always ready to roll.

Once empty, it collects dry carton, paper and empty packaging from shops for recycling so it never runs empty. In this way, Cargohopper removes up to 100.000 Van kilometers from the inner city streets and saves approx. 30 tons of CO2 on an annual bases.

Important is, that we have strict delivery rules in The Netherlands. If you are a normal van or truck you are only allowed during a small window of time into the city for unloading. Then we have environmental rules too: the city is divided in zones that you only are allowed to enter with an Euro IV or better vehicle. Cargohopper has zero emission and is allowed in the inner city at any time and any place. That is part of the advantage. It is also quite narrow: only 1.25 meters wide so when stopped to make a delivery in narrow streets, that we have a lot here as you correctly assumed, most of the other traffic is able to pass. Where it would have been trapped by a regular van.

Pretty intelligent don’t you think? I believe that this will certainly take off in Europe, especially in cities that have all of those narrow streets.

Cargohopper … as the green future unfolds.