The Greenest Energy is the Energy That We Do Not Use

It seems like everyone is complaining about the size of their monthly electric bill, from companies to homeowners to renters. But how many people actually have an idea how they accrued their kWh (kilowatt hours), and even more importantly, what they can do about lowering them?

The solution is getting insight and control over our plug loads – the amount of energy consumed by our plugged-in devices. In the United States an estimated $10 billion (100 billion kWh) per year is wasted on appliances that are left on, or that are left plugged in, all the while consuming energy. Standby power consumption single handedly contributes to 10% of residential use nationally, and more than half of all the energy used in buildings is outside of office hours, which tells you that our systems and habits are simply not efficient. (more…)

Harvesting Your Own Safe, Fresh, Vegetables – Year Round

The Benson Institute in Provo, Utah is a nonprofit organization established in 1975 as a division of the College of Biology and Agriculture at Brigham Young University (BYU). Named in honor of Ezra Taft Benson, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture during President Dwight Eisenhower’s administration. Throughout his life, Ezra Taft Benson worked to help others help themselves. (more…)

Bioreplication – Mother Nature’s Way Of Helping Us Help Her

Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Penn State University, working with Professor Carlo G. Pantano, graduate student Drew Patrick Pulsifer, and Professor Raúl José Martín-Palma of the Universidad Autónomia de Madrid, Spain, found that corneas of the blowfly was ideal for increasing power production for the next generation of solar cells. Blowflies have compound eyes that are roughly hemispherical, within each half sphere the surface is covered by macroscale hexagonal eyes with nanoscale features that allows the flies a 270° field of view. Mimicking this would allow solar cells to collect vast amounts of sunlight from a lot of different angles. This amounts to an extremely larger area and maximized efficiency while occupying the same footprint as a flat surfaced solar cell. (more…)

Sometimes It Seems Like One Green Step Forward, Two Oily Steps Back

As the White House renews the promise that BP will pay for the Gulf oil disaster, CNN reported the oil giant officially announced on Tuesday that CEO Tony Hayward is leaving his position and being replaced by Robert Dudley. Hayward will retain his post until the first of October, allowing for a transition period. They also reported a 17.2 billion dollar quarterly loss. No shedding tears for BP because comparatively speaking, that’s pocket change for them, as the everyday people that depends on the Gulf for their livelihoods are suffering through ecological and economical devastation resulting in suicides and a sharp rise in reports of domestic violence. (more…)

A Next-Generation Solar Powered Overhead-Suspended High-Speed Monorail

Sky Train Corporation (STC) and STC International, based in Palm Harbor, Florida is a unique team of world-class scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and associates all committed to their STC Green Transportation Mission.

STC in collaboration with the University of Central Florida’s Solar Energy Center (FSEC), designed and developed a solar Overhead-Suspended Light Rail System (OSLR) called Sky Train. A sustainable mass transportation system that made advancements in energy science by passing solar power through an Energy Transfer device to power an elevated light rail monorail and feed excess back to the grid. (more…)

One Man’s Mission To Wean The World Off Oil

WKRG.com News

One of the 100 most influential people of 2009 by Time magazine is a 42 year old Israeli businessman, Shai Agassi. Whom happens to be developing a global network of charging spots and “battery switch stations,” which will effectively work as gas stations for electric cars. He is a man on a mission to wean the world off it’s oil addiction and turn everyone into electric car drivers. With his California-based company, Better Place, Agassi has partnered with car maker Renault-Nissan to produce the first generation of emission-free electric cars, the Renault Fluence ZE design delivers comfort, styling and flexibility. The world’s first switchable battery electric car will be available in early 2011, which Agassi says “will not be more expensive than your average Sedan.” (more…)

WKRG.com News

Now Is The Time For All Good Texans To Come To The Aid Of Their Environment! And The Rest Of The World Is Invited To Put In Their Two Cents.

For over a decade, environmentalists accused the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) of lax regulation and urged the EPA to step in. Now the EPA appears to be agreeing with them and has given Texas until June 30 to change its approach or lose its oversight authority at potentially dozens of large industrial sites.

Enough is enough. Please sign the petition in support of the EPA fixing Texas’ broken air pollution permitting system: http://www.environmenttexas.org/action/clean-air/perry-petition2

Gov. Rick Perry continues attempts to block the EPA from (more…)