Get Energy Smart! NOW!

British Columbia is actively pusuring a Hydrogen Highway, announcing Monday that

“The Province is a step closer to deploying the world’s first fleet of hydrogen buses with $45 million that will go toward the production of 20 buses and development of hydrogen fuelling stations in Whistler and Victoria. Premier Gordon Campbell announced [this] at the Hydrogen and Fuel Cells 2007 international conference and trade show in Vancouver.”

[Read more →]

On 1 May 2007, the online edition of Geophysical Research Letters will publish a study by a combined team from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Colorado’s National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).  This study report will show, in yet another way, how the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report is overly optimistic and is likely understating the risks and impact of Global Warming.  In this case, the to-be-published study: ‘

Arctic Sea Ice Decline: Faster Than Forecast? [Read more →]

One key challenge related to Peak Oil is whether we’ll know it any other way than looking in the rear mirror.  At this time, in addition to hard numbers about falling productivity at key oil fields, oil discoveries continually being outpaced by usage, and questions about reserves, what the world (or at least the small portion who understands this issue) is doing is watching the comments of key people … well, another one has spoken and the words should scare … [Read more →]

For me, Ecotality has a valuable, diverse, and expanding blogroll.  Perhaps, however, this blogroll simply overwhelms and changes/additions to it are opaque rather than illuminating. Thus, a few words about an addtion today to the blogroll:  EarthPortal.

[Read more →]

Power storage is a key challenge for many paths forward to a better energy future. Whether finding a power storage system as efficient as gasoline or a path for cost-effectively storing intermittent power to enable renewable sources like wind and solar to pick up baseload power requirements, storage is a real challenge.  And, for hybrids/plug-in hybrids/electric vehicles, power storage (read batteries) has been a real challenge in investmetn.  Thanks to Green Car Congress for a tip to a new study that suggests that hybrid battery requirements will be a bigger market than traditional batteries within the next decade.

[Read more →]

In The Economic Impact of Renewable Energy, Steven Lacey of Renewable Energy Access  examines the economic impact of New Hampshire’s moves toward a renewable portfolio standard (RPS).  An RPS creates a standard for a certain percentage of energy (electricity) to come from renewable sources. Lacey’s conclusion — based on work done by the University of New Hampshire — the future is good, the RPS should have positive impacts on New Hampshire’s economy (even without considering secondary benefits, like reduced pollution). [Read more →]

Thanks to gmoke for the tips to the Boston Globe’s ‘green’ articles on Earth Day.  Green Light is subtitled “How to make Massachusetts the Silicon Valley of eco-energy”. This article begins:

“Since the beginning of his gubernatorial campaign, Deval Patrick has made clean energy a pet issue …”

“Pet issue”?  Well, perhaps regular readers might realize that we’re going to find a problem with that … [Read more →]

No, not the California Highway Patrol (nor CHiPs), Cogeneration (Combined-Heat Power)  is combining the production of electricity and heat.  Right now, major US electricity production has waste heat that is that, waste. Tremendous opportunities exist in the Untied States for converting this “waste” to something useful.  And, well, in America’s  homes, the (just-finished winter season)  heating goes on without generating electricity.  That, however, is starting to change with the introduction of some Micro-CHP systems suitable for the homeowner and small business. (Excellent site for discussion.)

[Read more →]

Bit-by-bit, explicit efforts to prioritize environmental issues — with committed voters — are emerging for the 2008 election. Here are two:

• The Heat is On from the League of Conservation Voters for “Making Global Warming a Presidential Priority”
• Climate Voters “united for a cooler future” (brand new on the web … your chance to be one of the first 5000 pledging)

[Read more →]

By now, you’ve probably heard of Freecycle, the group that allows you to follow the second precept of the Energy/Environmental Three Rs by ‘reusing it’ by passing ‘it’ along to others.  This can range from leaves for mulch to that baby grand piano that just can’t fit in your new home.   Freecycle enables you to pass along (or get) goods for free and be done with the problem. But, what about those who want to know

the impact of their actions? Who want to calculate how much they are helping to save the planet through borrowing and sharing and reusing? 

SocialWay seems  to have taken this challenge on.  They’ve developed the SocialWay Rootprint^TM.

[Read more →]