Month: July 2008

Optimistic Take on Economics and Climate Change

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

“We’ve just seen the first big win in the fight to stabilise the world’s climate”

Green Futures has an interview with Lester Brown and Brown has a neat take on the current state of the human relationship with how we use the environment.

Sound business sense, says Brown. “Unlike the Texan oil fields, there’s no way they’re going to deplete the wind! So when you build the infrastructure – the wind farms, the transmission lines and so on – you’re basically there for the long haul. Sure you’ll have to replace parts from time to time, but once it’s there, it can last as long as the Earth itself.”

And once you make that decisive shift to renewables, he adds, you start benefiting from all kinds of positive feedback loops. “For example, in the US, we use [a huge amount of] freight fuel to transport coal. If you phase out coal, you have a dramatic drop in diesel fuel use, and an associated fall in carbon emissions. It’s the same with water. If you have wind farms in place of thermal power plants (whether coal, gas or nuclear), water demand drops precipitously.”

Michigan Wins Solar Car Race

- Adam Clare 2 Comments

The 2008 North American Solar Challenge has ended in Calgary and the winners are from the University of Michigan, who have won it many many times in the past.

“A tremendous amount of work went into getting to this point. A lot of us have been on the team for over two years,” said a beaming Brooke Bailey, 23, who drove the blue-and-gold car for the final leg.
“The car has done everything we hoped for and we’re here. We made it.”
The solar cars resemble flying saucers with tiny cockpits that drivers cram themselves into for six hours at a time, enduring no air conditioning and little ventilation.
“When we were down in Texas the heat was pretty bad. We are pretty cramped, and by the end you’re ready to get out,” Bailey said.

Solar Power for a Month

- Adam Clare

Solar roof
A writer for a tech magazine converted his house to solar last month and he has written about his project and his amazingly low power bill. Here’s the highlights from converting his home to solar:

-The entire array consists of 27 panels. Each panel has a peak rating of 225W (nominal rating 207W). Nine panels face south, 18 face west. Total peak output of the array at the panel is 6.1KW.

-It’s summer here in California, so it’s the peak season for solar power generation.

-On the other hand, you may have read about all the fires that have been burning in Northern California. I’ve had to go up about once a week to rinse the ash off the panels.

-I have a minor tree problem. After about 7:30PM, a large tree several hundred yards away effectively blocks the sun. Since it’s late in the day, it’s well past the peak generating time, but it’s still worth noting.

Additionally, I’ve received my first electric bill since the installation, although it’s only for 19 days, not the usual 29 or 30.

So what was my electricity bill for 19 days?

$11.34

SUVs in the USA are Dying

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

I’ve been wanting to write this for a long time. Please bare with me here.

THE DEMAND FOR SUVs IS DECREASING IN THE USA.

That feels good to write. You should try it. One of the biggest symbols of waste, greed, ignorance, and arrogance is starting to fade away in the country that consume the most energy and pollution. It cannot be ignored that this is a direct result of the price of gas.

Toyota has announced that they are shifting their production plant that produces Highlanders to producing Prius cars. That’s right their factory making SUVs will now be making hybrids.

The company also announced that as of August 8, it will temporarily suspend the production of the Sequoia SUV and the Tundra pick-up — along with the production of the V8 engines that power them.

And it’s not alone. GM recently announced that it too is closing four truck plants and focusing on smaller cars for good, after total vehicle sales sank 18 percent in June. On top of that, it said it’s considering selling off its Hummer brand, whose future is hanging by a thin thread.
But GM wasn’t quite the worse performer in June. That honor belongs to Ford, which saw a drop in sales of 28 percent.

Meanwhile, US sales of the Toyota Prius took a giant hit of 26 percent in the month of June — after dealers ran short of inventory and customer waiting lists grew to six months from its soaring popularity.

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