There are 239 billion green opportunities in China. That is, China is planning on spending Y2 trillion ($239 million) to ensure that renewable energy will account for 15% of the nation’s power by the year 2020. China is the world’s second largest energy user. A country one fourth the size uses more.

Presently, less than 10% of China’s power comes from renewable energy. The government has earmarked Y1.4 trillion from 2006-2010. The U.S. says the clean technology market in China will be about $186 billion in 2010 and grow to $555 billion by 2020. Okay, I lost track of how much money can be made.

Looking for a good business opportunity? Help China become greener. They’ll pay out the gazoo for any good idea you can come up with. The best ideas – clean coal and carbon capture technologies says one expert.

Do you have a green idea?

Image courtesy of V 2

As Bush made a move to protect the world’s largest marine sanctuary, on the other side of the world there is another surprise leader in the protection of the marine environment – China. China held its first international drill against oil spills with South Korea off the coast of Qingdao. Some 500 people, one helicopter, one fixed wing aircraft and 29 vessels were involved … none of them leaking anything, of course.

The Northwest Pacific region is at the highest risk of oil spills and a natural place for pollution prevention training. China gets some 400 oil tankers visiting each day carrying some 420 million tons of crude oil annually. In the past 24 years there have been 79 accidents involving oil spills of at least 50 tons of oil. Gosh, that’s about a year’s worth of crude oil wasted, no?

China lags in maritime firefighting capability and oil cleaning equipment. But, perhaps the Middle Kingdom is turning the corner. South Korea had the most serious oil spill in history last year when 15,000 tons of crude oil leaked into the sea near Hong Kong.

We usually get really excited when things on Earth happen the way they should and that’s what could happen now that President Bush has made a public proposal last week. He wants all the 15 islands in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and parts of the islands in the Pacific to be granted the national-monument status, which would lead to the world’s largest marine reserve on the planet as big as Texas and Alaska combined.

“Life on Earth changes all the time, but these are like time machines that take us back to the time when humans didn’t impact coral reefs in any significant ways,” said Enric Sala, a marine ecologist and National Geographic fellow and emerging explorer.

Aerial view of a small pristine isle near Island Saipan

Large ancient lobe coral in Kingman Reef, studied by an ecologist

Rich coral ecosystem in the lush Palmyra Atoll

Gray reef sharks patrol Kingman Reef

Masked boobie in Palmyra Atoll

“These places are completely different from what we know anywhere else. They’re totally dominated by their predators. Imagine the Serengeti with five lions per wildebeest. This is Kingman Reef,” said Enric Sala

The proposal is great, but can we be sure these pristine reefs won’t be “vandalized” by fishing or other similar activities. Let’s hope so because it’s too beautiful.

All photographs by Paul Chesley/NGS

As much as we’d like to see solar powered planes, flying above our cities, that’s just not a viable solution at the moment. However, British scientists (others, too, of course) are researching ways of building the sustainable plane and came up with a solar powered spy plane that managed to set an unofficial record – longest duration unmanned flight – by staying in the air for three and a half days.

Dubbed Zephyr, the ultra-lightweight carbon-fibre aircraft is actually a hybrid that uses solar power during the day and rechargeable lithium-sulphur batteries while flying at night.

Because they needed a lot of sun, the trial flight took place between July 28 and 31 in the Sonoran Desert where the temperature went up to 45 Celsius degrees. Launched by hand from the US Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, the plane flew on autopilot and reached an altitude of more than 60,000 ft. It stayed in the air for exactly 82 hours and 37 minutes.

When will we see Boeing or Airbus flying on solar power? Not anytime soon I suppose.

From January 1, 2009, China will begin recycling by a law that will promote a circular economy. The law was passed at the 11th Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC). It took three readings to get it right.

China is riding on the heels of a very successful Olympics. The new push – boost sustainable development through:

1. energy saving
2. pollution reduction

No mystery here. If China can get on track, one fifth of the world will be on track and the world’s worst polluter will have been reeled in. Generally speaking, however, it would be much better for people to want to save the world than to be afraid of punishment if they did not.

Eight teams completed a 4,022.5km (2,500 mile) car rally, “Grease to Greece,” from London to Athens. The event was aimed at promoting awareness of cheap environmentally-friendly bio-fuels.

Londoner Andy Pag is the brains behind the idea. The eight teams were required to beg for oil from restaurants, motorway cafes and fast-food joints along the way. Or they could go to KFC and just squeeze their own.

Pag drove a Peugot 405 for no cost from London to Athens.

Pag has also driven a truck powered by waste chocolate from Timbuktu to Mali. His next challenge – a round-the-world trip using aviation fuel from recycled plastic bags.

What I want to know is – who are the fuels, fools who are wasting chocolate??!!

Nippon Yusen KK and Nippon Oil Corp are working on the world’s first solar powered ship … well, at least partially solar powered, they are saying. What? A hybrid ship? The two companies want to put solar panels on top of the 60,000-ton ship that are capable of generating 40 kilowatts of electricity each.

The ship will carry Toyota cars. Is anybody surprised?

Fuel savings are expected to be in the neighborhood of 6.5% and carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by 1-2% or 20 tons per year. It will cost Nippon Usen about $1.4 million to create the solar panel system.

The ship is expected to be completed by December with damage to the panels from salt and vibration the biggest obstacles.

A Nippon Oil dude says, “If it’s possible, we want to aim for the full commercialization of the system in the next three to five years.” Yeah, we got to make money out of this operation, for sure.

When pimping your car, who in the world things about the environment. It’s simple. It has to look better and drive faster. But then you have Scott Wade an experienced artist in love with dirty-rear-windows that will make an eco-friendly graffiti on your car’s back. Check more images after the jump.

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Bus shelters are already useful because they keep people safe against rain or wind, but the guys at Fuel Miami, LLC decided, there’s room for improvement. So they did! The first 600 solar bus shelters will be delivered in Miami and will allow the company to show their clients’ ads without the need of being connected to the grid.

Saving about 2 tones a day of CO2, this may not be the big step in fighting global warming we’ve all been expecting, but we all know it takes babies steps to grow big. What can these solar bus shelters change? They could start with the advertisers to making them more eco-friendly or eco-conscious.

Don’t think the cost is a problem, but I’m more interested in knowing if the vandals would see it as a magnet or not. What happens when those photovoltaic cells broke, who’s going to pay for the repairs? Is that sustainable and at the same time, profitable?

via Ecolocalizer (Image courtesy of Tony Worrall)

Electric Bike makers are having a field day. As gasoline prices go up, so do their sales. From the mountain tops of Colorado to Europe people are wanting to “get a little fresh air and exercise, and cut my carbon footprint, and spend less money on gas.”

Electric bikes work like a regular two-wheel one except they have a battery-powered assist. The Gluskin-Townley Group says sales last year were up 67% over 2006. A NYC dealer says sales are up 50%. Amazon.com says sales surged more than 6000% in July from a year earlier. Of course, that number could have been quite low last year, skewing these figures.

Last year some 89,000 electric bikes were sold in the Netherlands and 60,000 in Germany.

The principle behind electric bikes is akin to that behind hybrid cars: Combine the conventional technology — in this case, old-fashioned pedaling — with a battery-powered motor.

 

The net result is a vehicle that rides a bit like a scooter, with some legwork required. Most models have a motorcycle-like throttle that gives a boost while going up hills or accelerating from a stop. On some models, the motor kicks in automatically and adjusts its torque based on how hard the rider pedals.

Prices range from $1,400 – 2,525 and can go 20 miles before a recharge for about 10 cents. Let’s see, 20 miles on a gallon of gas at $5 or on a bike for 1o cents. Tough choice…..NOT!

Electric bike anyone?

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