Ed Ring

Utility scale solar thermal power is something you still don't hear much about, but along with photovoltaic power, it is a big part of the reason solar power is possibly the only source of renewable energy that is not only absolutely clean and sustainable, but capable of exponential growth for decades to come.  And Ausra, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, has perhaps the most promising solar thermal design we've ever seen. Ausra's "solar field" of reflectors. Note the heat exchanging tube overhead. Solar thermal power uses mirrors to reflect sunlight onto heat exchangers, in order to heat a thermal transfer fluid to drive a turbine, which turns a generator to produce...

It's appalling that the European environmentalists allowed biodiesel subsidies.  The idea we can burn our biosphere in the tanks of our cars, and that this is somehow better than using petroleum, is the death knell to tropical forests.  In turn this is the cause of droughts due to loss of transpiration, extreme weather because tropical deforestation undermines the monsoon circulation, and even global warming both due to the thermal impact of hotter open land vs. cooler reflective cloud cover that forms over tropical forests, and (arguably, at least) the CO2 impact of removing perennial uptake as well as the massive one-time release of CO2 when the forest is removed.  Tropical...

When will China do something about the cloud of air pollution that drifts across the Pacific?  It's going to cause an ice age, for goodness sakes.  Can't we have economic growth, without asthma?  This isn't to say China shouldn't increase her footprint - isn't the Three Gorges complex just like America's Grand Coulee and Hoover Dam and many other glorious national achievements?  It's their river.  China's Three Gorges become 17.5 Gigawatts. On the other hand, there is a plume of emissions from coal plants, oil combustion, flares and fires, that wafts across the Pacific from Asia to America, and it is thousands of miles wide.  It comes from China, workshop...

The average amount California sets aside from public employee payrolls and invests into CALPRS and CALSTRS each year is about 16% of each active employee's salary.  This money is invested by CALPRS and CALSTRS all over the world.  In fact, a CALPRS representative once boasted for the record that "20% of our fund we invest in California!"  The other 80% is invested globally. The reason the globalized nature of these public pension funds - as well as the amount on top of salary (16%) set aside each year - is relevant is because they are not financially sustainable without massive tax increases to make up shortfalls.  Sustainability is more than a principle to be engineered into green technology - sustainability is a force that will asset itself in all things.  Sustainability applies, either by design or correctively, in everything from economics to population demographics. ...

The Ziggurat building in West Sacramento looks like a step pyramid, like the ones you might see in ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia.  But this modern pyramid has eleven steps, corresponding to its eleven stories, a bit more than the step pyramids of Egypt or the ziggurats of Mesopotamia.  The Ziggurat building is currently owned by California's State Dept. of General Services, or DGS. Will Sacramento's Ziggurat serve reminder, that we were a cradle of greentech civilization? In the old days, this beautiful building was lit at night by warm floodlights that made the sides of the square building glow like a white canvas tent that has illuminations burning...

Last week we had the chance to talk with Bill Davis, the President of Ze-gen.  This three year old company is possibly the furthest along in the race to develop technology to turn waste into fuel - eliminating the need for landfills in the bargain. Each year, the United States produces about 100 million tons of construction debris, and about 220 million tons of municipal solid waste.  Currently nearly all of this waste goes into landfills. Pouring the foundation at Ze-gen's pilot plant in New Bedford, Massachusetts. What Ze-gen has done in New Bedford, Massachusetts, is set up a demonstration plant to accept up to ten tons per day of construction and demolition...

Our top feature this month on EcoWorld is an in-depth report on India's hydroelectric power by Avilash Roul entitled "India's Hydro Power."  Within this article the reader is provided a comprehensive survey of India's current hydroelectric generating capacity, their potential hydroelectric capacity, as well as the current plans India has to develop more of their potential hydro power.  Also within this article is detailed analysis of the pros and cons of hydroelectric power development in India. The purpose of this post is not to restate what is within Roul's lengthy report, but to provide a forum for comments and debates on this topic of vital importance.  As we note in our introduction to the story "for India to produce half as much energy per capita as members of the European Community, its overall energy production would need to quadruple."  Can this challenge be met?  Should this challenge be...

It’s generally accepted that to develop new cars with a green ethos designers will have to start thinking outside the traditional box, but this year at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show, Honda decided to redefine the box while they were at it. The company unveiled its concept vehicle christened “Puyo,” a name meant to onomatopoetically convey the Japanese phrase for “touching the vehicle’s soft body.” They hope drivers will regard the Puyo as more a lovable pet than a piece of machinery. Honda's "Puyo" Concept Car With four independently steered wheels, the Puyo can do a 306 degree turn in-place. Body-wise the Puyo looks a bit like a marshmallow on wheels. Outfitted with...

You wouldn't think so if you looked at the way mainstream media cherry-picked NOAA's recent "Arctic Report Card," released on 10-17. From CBS News we get the headline "Rapid Changes In Arctic, Experts Warn," with the lead stating "The Arctic is under increasing stress from warming temperatures as shrubs colonize the tundra." From the BBC we get "Warm wind hits Arctic climate," with the lead stating "The Arctic is being hit by melting ice, hotter air and dying wildlife." Yet if you actually read the report from NOAA, you get a much less alarming story: "The first update of a report tracking the state of the Arctic indicates that some changes in that region are larger and occurring faster than those previously predicted by climate models, while other indicators show some stabilizing." "Not all indicators show extreme events, and some signals are mixed. For instance, North Pole ocean temperatures are returning to 1990s values, but currents are relatively...

Earlier this month we reported on the Aptera Typ-1, a futuristic, aerodynamic, three-wheel electric car being developed by a company in Southern California who - if they aren't in stealth - may as well be.  But then again, who cares?  Anybody who brings a car like this to market anytime in the next few years is going to sell them as fast as they can make them, regardless of whether or not they have a publicity machine. The Aptera Typ-1, with a drag coefficient of .11, may be the first series hybrid in the world to go into full production. Today we had the privilege to talk with Steve Fambro, Founder and CEO of Aptera, and we came away with some fascinating additional details about...