California regulators have passed some new rules that will ban storing some types of biodiesel underground. The fear is the new rule will hamper the fledgling green industry.

“…gas stations, fleet yards and others who distribute the increasingly popular ‘green’ fuel can only store biodiesel blends of up to 20 percent in underground tanks, even if the tanks are double-walled.”

The tanks need to be tested for leaks and the test is expected to take 2-3 years. Biodiesel advocates say it will reduce sales across the Golden State.

“This is stupid. It’s a step backwards,” said CB, who runs a Tree Service in San Jose. “It’s like they are picking on us. We are trying to do the right thing.”

Translated means – let’s test the dickens out of the non green industry folk but give us a free pass.

These rules grew out of several pollution disasters that California has experienced over the past 30 years. Higher concentrations of biodiesel have some solvent properties and have not yet been approved by Underwriters Laboratories.

Sounds reasonable to me, unless of course, you think we are walking backwards.

Image by David Reverchon

Clayton Homes unveiled their green modular i-House at last week’s Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders meeting. With a focus on energy saving, the i-House is expected to be 30% more energy efficient than traditional homes. Monthly energy bills are expected to go south of $70. Or you could move into Silicon Valley where are monthly energy bills are less than that already.

i-House by Clayton Homes

Designed with a contemporary feel and featuring solar panels (if the orientation permits it) on a butterfly roof that gathers rainwater, the i-House comes with Ikea fixtures, dual-flush toilets, low-flow faucets, easily renewable bamboo flooring, recycled content decking material, Japanese-style climate control in each room and low E efficient windows.

As for prices – there are two versions of the i-House. One is smaller with only one bedroom and one bathroom, covering 723 sq ft and priced at $74,900, while the other one is larger covering some 1,023 sq ft with a structure that accommodates two bedrooms and a bathroom for $93,300. Now here is where we charge your $500K for a minuscule lot to put the house on thus defeating the purpose of having cheap energy prices.

And if anyone was wondering, we really like the clean sleek design and the modernish interior. Good news for the housing market eh? Great news for the green industry.

Foam Storm in Cape Town, August 2008

— Whoa! Somebody spilled their beer.
— Huh!? Whaddya mean?
— Dude, look at the foam everywhere … on the streets, under the cars, chasing the kids. Serious foam.
— Ah..um..that would be Neptune, I suppose.
— Neptune!?
— Yeah. He gets drunk sometimes, whips up a storm, spills his beer and sends foam all up and down the coastline.
— …?
— Yeah, it happened in Capetown not long ago.
— Whoa, man! Where’s my mug?

(more…)

Concerns over the Internet’s carbon footprint are growing exponentially with the ever increasing demands of energy for the soaring online industry. The costs of maintaining and serving the billions of web pages on the Internet are rising and has swollen carbon emissions by 10-percent each year, to a level that’s overtaking the air travel industry.

Former Anti-atomic Shelter Becomes an Internet Datacenter

Apparently a study by Rich Brown— energy analyst at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in California, for the US environmental protection agency, revealed that US servers consumed a whopping 61 billion KWh of energy in 2006. That’s quite enough to supply the whole of the UK for two months …

Among the first to take action, the largest Internet giant— Google, have been trying to contain the rising electricity costs and to lower their own carbon footprint by adding their own datacenters. And although Google have spent $2.3 billion to develop sustainable technologies and infrastructure, they’re not sure if the balance is in their favor. “You have exponential growth in demand from users, and many of these services are free so you don’t have exponential growth of revenue to go with it,” says Urs Hölzle, VP of operations.

So, are we in danger of getting things out of control? Because at the staggering rate of growth we’ve seen online in the last few years, unless something is being done to reduce the carbon emissions of these servers, the generated environmental degradation is only going to mount.

Source: Guardian

Palmdale was set to be the location for a new international airport in LA. However, it never got off the ground. Today, however, there is good news! Apparently the authorities have finally come up with a plan for the location. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power wants to install a solar farm on some 4,000 (largely undeveloped) acres of the land.

Palmdale Regional Airport

With solar power becoming the energy source of choice as the most effective and environmentally friendly way to power buildings, LA official have decided to set up a solar energy structure that can generate as much as 100 megawatts of environmentally friendly energy.

The whole plan looked like a good deal considering that a pending proposition requires Los Angeles to produce at least 400 megawatts via solar power by 2014. This project alone could provide 1/4 of the energy needed to meet the city’s goal. No problems, right?

Wrong!

If all passed with no complaints, Los Angeles could be well on its way to a cleaner and greener future.

But…but… is there anyone who could oppose such a fantastic proposition? Indeed there is. Apparently there are other activists who think it is unnecessary to build such a large solar power facility and want to use the land for something else.

It’s hard enough when the environmentalists and land grubbers can’t agree. It’s even harder when the environmentalists can’t agree among themselves, eh?

Image by gtarded

Sure, everybody says what goes on at home is nobody’s business but those in the house. But everybody WANTS to know what really goes on. Enter the Cubcam – a camera that captures the images of the secret life of lions and their cubs. Be careful of what you want to know, you might just find out.

Lion Cub Roaring? Or Smiling?

Little guys sneak up on something hiding in the grass. The camera is hidden in elephant dung (how’d you like to have that job?)

The idea for the closeups go to Anup and Manoj Shah, and their sidekick, Carla.

“I am most satisfied with the images which show the personality of the lions.
There is one image of three lion cubs in the Ol Kiombo pride. They look slightly bold and a little apprehensive but that is exactly what a lion cub is.”

Lion cubs from the Ol Liombo pride in the Masai Mara, Kenya

The cameras were triggered by movement nearby and were placed near watering holes. We get it now, it’s kinky. These guys just really wanted to see the animals strip down and take a bath.

Lion cub trapped by a herd of Cape Buffalo

“OOoo! Who’s that guy with the camera?” said Antoniette (Tony the Tiger’s sister).
Doesn’t matter. If it goes click, we’ll have him over for dinner and he can be the main course.”

A mature male lion close up

Source

Bionic (Aqua) penguins by Festo

I remember the 6 million dollar man and the Bionic woman, but there might be a new TV series in the making – the Bionic Penguin. Penguins are know for how snazzy they dress. Now they can be seen flying through the water. But look carefully because these are actually robots— the Aqua Penguins created by the German company, Festo.

“Nature demonstrates how maximum performance can be achieved with minimum energy consumption, a Festo spokesman said.

Aqua Penguins can fly through the water. They have a steel skeleton, flexible fiber rods to control their heads and are covered with silicon. Propelled by elegant wings formed from a spring steel skeleton, these smart penguins can also swim backwards. And did we mention the built-in 3D sonar that helps them communicate with each other to keep from crashing?

Bionic (Aqua) penguins by Festo

The critters can move individually and as part of a group (when they go to school, of course). Festo also created Air Penguins, not to be confused with Air Jordans. These guys go shoeless. The blimp-like Air Penguins are filled with helium and ’swim’ through the air. I am blimp-like and can hardly get off the ground, but….

Air penguins filled with helium

The question, of course, is “Now what?” TV contracts? A movie? Peter Penguin meets Godzilla!

Coal will be German’s national king.  It’s not to be confused with that Nat King Cole. Despite its reputation for emission of harmful gases, Germany’s electricity, thanks to cleaner technology, will come from coal.

Germany's electricity (thanks to cleaner technology) will come from coal

image source

Germany is Europe’s biggest power market and in order to phase out nuclear power the Krauts must continue to focus on coal. Dependence on coal will also help Germany reduce its reliance on Russian gas.

“The planners are finding coal the more attractive option as opposed to gas, price-wise and in terms of availability,” said Manuel Frondel of the RWE research institute in Essen.

Germany gets half of its power output from coal which comes from reliable sources (friends) like Australia and South Africa.

The new technology – carbon capture and storage (CCS) is keeping environmentalists happy…until the storage bins become too fool, um, full.

Russia and Ukraine cut supplies to Europe in January throwing the reliability of gas as an energy source into doubt at a time when it was most needed. Russia can eat its heart out if the rest of the world learns to do without.

Germany’s cabinet already approved a CCS draft laws to develop the technology aimed at cutting coal plant pollution and burying CO2 underground.

CCS is coal-fired power generation’s only hope to play a role in the energy mix. In Britain, coal plants are already being forced to use CCS technology.

“Although CCS will take 10 to 15 years to develop and it is by no means certain that it will be applicable, passing the law will be one of the arguments in favor of the construction of new coal-fired plants,” said Claudia Kemfert of the DIW institute.

Russia! Ukraine! Are you reading?!