Tag: solar energy

You can throw away your gas cans, your flashlights, your batteries, your power lines.  

The world is saved.  Hallelujah.

The fabled bolt box that can store lightning bolts in a thimble and make talk of intermittent energy as defunct as a flat earth has been patented.

Patent filing claims solar energy ‘breakthrough’

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/201…

In science-challenged U.S. only a patent application has been filed but elsewhere patents have issued.

Inventor Ronald Ace said that his flat-panel “Solar Traps,” which can be mounted on rooftops or used in electric power plants, will shatter decades-old scientific and technological barriers that have stymied efforts to make solar energy a cheap, clean and reliable alternative.

“This is a fundamental scientific and environmental discovery,” Ace said. “This invention can meet about 92 percent of the world’s energy needs.”

Not only is Ace – a truly accomplished inventor – an unparalleled genius but he is supremely modest as well.  It is obviously nonsensical to talk of a missing 8% when limitless energy is available to all.

John Darnell, a scientist and the former congressional aide who has monitored Ace’s dogged research for more than three years and has reviewed his complex calculations, has no doubts.

“Anybody who is skilled in the art and understands what he’s proposing is going to have this dumbfounding reaction: ‘Oh, well it’s obvious it’ll work,'” said Darnell, a biochemist with an extensive background in thermodynamics.

There you have an official imprimatur that is even superior to Papal bull.

Best,  Terry

Sometimes, your kids tell you great things.

We have the coolest house on the street.

Wow.  

We’re cool — according to the kids.  

Certainly isn’t the non-existent slide for the pool that isn’t there.  

Our lack of a huge media room and the glaring absence of a gym didn’t contribute.  

And, while I’ve always thought it cool that we live on the white house of the street, that isn’t it either.  

My fourth-grader son explained to me why it’s cool:

Because we know where our electricity comes from.

Last fall, facing a bit of pressure (mainly from 350.org) about the absence of solar from the White House roof since the Reagan Administration took off the panels President Carter put it, the Administration promised that the White House would have solar panels up on the roof “before the end of spring”.

As of today, 15 June 2011, the White House still doesn’t have solar panels on it.

The clock is ticking as even with climate disruption messing up our seasons, spring still ends 20 June …  

Lyrics are from Loreena McKennit’s Mummer’s Dance

When in the springtime of the year

When the trees are crowned with leaves

When the ash and oak, and the birch and yew

Are dressed in ribbons fair

Spring = Solar lawnmower

The Enviromower, which we observed back here, was conceived in Australia and is also sold throughout Europe, the UK and New Zealand. And in North America, except there it goes by the name of Neuton. It’s a battery-powered electric mower. As we buy accredited 100% Solar GreenPower from our energy utility, our Enviromower is, in essence, powered by the sun.

The battery is a sealed unit of two linked 12V lead-acid type batteries. It can be removed from the mower, or left in-situ to be recharged. This takes about 12-16 hours. (I originally had my eye on the 36V Bosch Rotak LI with its lithium ion batteries, which are said to charge in one hour! But these mowers seem to be only available in Europe.)

However, from my perspective, the red coloured Enviromower Eco 500 can handle a standard suburb yard with aplomb. It cuts grass very well. It gives a clean, even cut, albeit a little narrower (35.5cm or 14″) than most petrol mowers. Three modes of mowing are possible: attaching the included grass catcher, using the included rear deflector to let the clippings fall behind the cut, or the included mulching plug. This latter attachment keeps the clippings next to the blades, so they’re sliced and diced fine enough to fall down as useful nutrient for improved lawn.

Hey all welcome to your weekly dose of green positivity!!!

Enjoy the articles.

Cleaner water through nanotech

Could tiny particles added to  water sources help solve one of the world’s biggest problems?

Coated silica particles filter out toxins, pathogens

Tiny particles of pure silica coated with an active material could be used to remove toxic chemicals, bacteria, viruses, and other hazardous materials from water much more effectively and at lower cost than conventional water purification methods, according to researchers writing in the current issue of the International Journal of Nanotechnology.

We can hope the fisherman listen to this guy BEFORE they kill otters.

Despite of this potential conflict, Kai Chan of the University of British Columbia believes there is a way to ensure Canadian First Nations fishers can benefit from the otters’ presence.

“Efforts to restore wildlife populations should not be played out in a win-lose framework that pits conservation against the economic interests of the local people,” observes Chan, who spoke at the American Association for the Advancement of Science Annual Conference in Boston (February 14 to 18).

Every fall, chapters of the American Solar Energy Society sponsor home tours around the country.  This year, most of the tours are on October 6, but some are earlier, such as this coming Sunday, September 23, in San Francisco.

It’s a great opportunity to find out what kinds of alternative energy measures people have adopted in your local area.  For example, there’s nine throughout the state of Colorado.  There’s literally 100s of them nationwide.  Unless you’re in the Dakotas, Wyoming or West Virginia (West Virginia??); there’s one in your state, and also in Puerto Rico.  Bowling Green, Kentucky’s having its “first annual” solar home tour this year.

Here, too.