A refreshing, well-balanced look at climate change in America. You don’t have to be a climate scientist these days to know that the climate has problems. You just have to step outside. The United States is now enduring its warmest year on record…Meanwhile, the country often seems to be moving further away from doing something …
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Why rain barrels? Placed under a down spout, rain barrels conveniently collect rainwater that can be used to water gardens and lawns, wash cars or even fill birdbaths and ponds. A 1000 square foot roof yields about 600 gallons per inch of rainfall – that’s a lot of water (and money) to be saved. Rain …
I’ve been seeing a lot more solar panels installed on homes. Which has me wondering, what is the impact on cost, inconvenience, and utilities. Scott over on the Zero Waste Blog has the perfect, written-by-an-engineer, write-up. It is worth reading the whole thing, but here is a meaty excerpt: So what has the impact been? …
Continue reading “What’s it like going solar (installing panels on your roof)?”
– …illustrate the variability of wind and solar generation relative to the comparatively smooth output from other generation sources – Power produced by geothermal, biomass, biogas, and small hydro generators can be easily dispatched, meaning it can be either increased, decreased, or controlled to remain fairly constant. – Wind resources are often more available at …
Continue reading “Renewable energy production variability by hour of day, and by season (graph)”
The current explosion in cloud computing offered by major IT companies is driving significant new demand for dirty energy like coal and nuclear power, according to a new report from Greenpeace International. The report, “How Clean is Your Cloud?” shows a growing split within the tech industry between companies that are taking steps to power …
Continue reading “Apple, Amazon, & Microsoft build data centers around dirty energy”
Venture capitalists invested $5.8 billion in 758 deals in the first quarter of 2012. The report shows that after a strong fourth quarter 2011, VC investment activity for the quarter fell 19 percent in terms of dollars and 15 percent in the number of deals compared to the fourth quarter of 2011 when $7.1 billion …
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“The same wind that used to pump water for cattle is now turning giant wind turbines to power cities and homes.” “The blades only turn about 18 RPM, not nearly fast enough to create electricity, so the rotor shaft spins a series of gears that increase the rotation up to 1800 RPM. At that speed …
Continue reading “Energy 101: Wind turbines, how those slow moving blades create electricity”
This edition of Energy 101 highlights the benefits of electric vehicles, including improved fuel efficiency, reduced emissions, and lower maintenance costs. Electric Vehicle = EV “80% of drivers travel less than 40 miles round-trip for their daily commute. Which is just right for an EV.” “Many of today’s EV’s can go up to 100 miles …
100% of Minnesota’s electricity generation needs can be met by wind and solar sources combined with improvements to the state’s electric grid system and energy efficiency policies, according to a report released today. Renewable Minnesota: Aanalysis of a 100% renewable-energy based electricity system for Minnesota Researched and written by Dr. Arjun Makhijani and Christina Mills …
Continue reading “Myth = 100% of our energy cannot come form renewable sources”
WhichFlicks is a website that allows you to sort through thousands of movies and television shows on Netflix. With that many options there is always something to watch the trouble is finding it. With this website you have the ability to sort by Netflix Stars, Rotten Tomato Ratings, date, genre, audience (MPAA rating), and by …