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…)

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 — (more…)

Too Good To Be True? Not With MIT On Our Side

MIT researchers have a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.

Daniel G. Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT, developed a simple method to split water molecules and produce oxygen gas, a discovery that paves the way for large-scale use of solar power.

The researchers developed a new catalyst, consisting of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode. When the catalyst is placed in water and electricity runs through the electrode, oxygen gas is produced. When another catalyst is used to produce hydrogen gas, the oxygen and hydrogen can be combined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power a house or an electric car, day or night.

With Daniel Nocera’s and Matthew Kanan’s catalyst, homeowners could use their solar panels during the day to power their home, while also using the energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen for storage. At night, the stored hydrogen and oxygen could be recombined using a fuel cell to generate power while the solar panels are inactive.

More engineering work needs to be done to integrate the process into existing photovoltaic systems, but Nocera said he is confident that such systems will become a reality.

Nocera hopes that within 10 years, homeowners will be able to power their homes in daylight through photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen to power their own household fuel cell. Electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.

But like the old saying goes ….. “an internet video clip from LiveScience.com is worth a thousand words“, so……

Here is a little item I found wandering around and thought it was unique.

The Spanish town of Santa Coloma de Gramenet has placed more than 450 solar
panels on top of mausoleums at its cemetery to generate power, it emerged
yesterday. The crowded, working-class town outside Barcelona decided that
flat, open, sun-drenched land was so scarce that the graveyard was the only
viable spot to site the panels, which provide enough electricity to power 60
homes. They rest on mausoleums holding five layers of coffins. The idea was
a tough sell, said Antoni Fogue, a city council member. But town hall and
cemetery officials waged a campaign to explain the project and the panels
were erected at a low angle, to be as unobtrusive as possible.”This
installation is compatible with respect for the deceased and for the families
of the deceased,” Fogue said.

Necessity is the mother of invention OR don’t just lay there, make yourself
useful!

Give this a try…. Internet Marketing Crash Course

I have doing some research on how to get off the grid. After hurricane Ike’s
tremendous impact not only on the coast but also how far it went throughout
the U.S., I needed to find something that I could do rather cheaply.

I found that Off the Grid Living has all the information you will need to make
the change from being married to your utility company to financial and personal
freedom.

Their promise is that you can build a 1000 watt wind generator with no special
tools and no experience in about 2 weekends for under $100. So far there have
been hundreds of families who have duplicated their success. (more…)

April 29, 2008
One year after the tornado

Farrell Allison’s house is being invaded by CBS news.  Greensburg is getting
ready for the 1 year anniversary.  They are going to break ground on the business
incubator, a memorial service for those that died due to the tornado, and
re-dedicate the new water tower.   The seniors will be graduating, and the
President will be in town.

Dealing with the news media gives them exposure to hopefully extra monies to (more…)

Clay walls are naturally mold resistant and “breathable” which helps
circulate the air and remove allergens. Left over clay can be discarded
directly on the ground with absolutely no ill effects on the Earth.

Denim insulation is flame retardant, mold resistant, and has a higher
insulation value per inch than fiberglass. It has no formaldehyde and
is great sound proofing.

Concrete counters and floors don’t harbor mold or other allergens.

If every house in Los Angeles had solar panels installed it could< (more…)