I am not pretending for a moment that Kenya is the kid and the U. S. or any other ‘developed’ nation is the adult. It’s the other way around. Kenyans have been here much longer than we ‘Westerners’.

However, the fact that the Kenyan government has a blue print for renewable energy - Kenya Energy Sector Environment Program (KEEP) - gives pause to wonder. It’s definitely the ‘under-developed‘ leading the ‘developed‘ no?

KEEP wants to -

1. phase out importing telephone poles
2. preserve the nation’s water catchment despite population pressure
3. remove existing barriers and constraints to adoption of efficiency and conservation technologies
4. begin switching from reliance on charcoal for fuel to promoting commercial tree growth
5. 85% of their planned new capacity to come from clean geothermal and hydro renewable sources

Go, Kenya, go!

Show the rest of the world how to do it.

Image by eir@si

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe free for our updates via RSS feed. Thanks for visiting and please do come back!

Dubai continues to set standards and, why not with all the money the little kingdom has in the bank. Oil money. Our money.

Dr. David Fisher is the designer of this Dynamic Architecture - a wind-powered rotating skyscraper, 420 meters high and with 80 floors that rotate independently. A total of 48 wind turbines will be installed between each floor making it very environmentally friendly and capable of sustaining itself with electricity.

Dubai has some 4,000 hours of wind annually and with that kind of wind generating power, the tower will get all the annual power it needs from just four of the turbines and the other 44 will send power to support Dubai’s power grid .

The wind-powered rotating skyscraper will be built in parallel stages instead of from the ground up, with a solid concrete core and a factory nearby prefabricating each floor in segments. Each apartment will be modular and should be tailored to the individual tenant’s desires.

Another similar project, but smaller is planned for Moscow. Only 400 meters and 70 floors. I now wonder if HSBC knew about this design, before they built their eco-friendly skyscraper.

Meanwhile -‘The Donald’ and His $2B Golf Course is heading the other way.

And maybe Dubai will use Beer Bottles for their hot water system. We can only hope.

Everybody wants to lower gas prices. And everybody has an idea of how to do it.

Yesterday I wrote How Not to Lower Gas Prices.

Today…part 2.

A couple in Dartmouth decided they would beat the system by hoarding some gasoline in their apartment.

Fumes ignited from the gasoline that was stored in a utility closet and sent residents from eight units fleeing for their lives.

Firemen were on it, and the sprinklers worked well to extinguish the jugs of gasoline that had been covered with cloth rags.

Are we sure Obama wasn’t talking about people in MA, too?

The whole apartment came dangerously close to a vapor explosion.

It wouldn’t have lowered the gas prices overall, there would just be a few less people lining up at the gas pimps, er, pumps.

source

My wife needs one of these things from Strapya and Tokyo Coil Engineering. The companies have come up with a plan to prevent missing phone calls. A solar-charged cell phone strap.

The strap weighs just 40g (1 oz) and is just 12.5cm (5 in) long. Yet it can store up to 40 minutes of call time once fully charged.

Just one problem … it takes 6-10 hours to charge in perfect weather conditions.

The solution…let the strap hang out of your pocket or bag and walk around outside all day. Or, you can just plug the dang thing in every night to keep it charged.

Price - Y1,995 ($20)

source

I don’t like high gas prices any more than the next guy or gal. It’s $4.53/gal for the cheap stuff right down the street from my house.

There’s a goof ball lady up the street, relatively speaking, from me who has decided to protest the high gas prices here in California. Protesting is a hobby in these parts.

She decided she would make a statement by trying to set the restrooms of two gas stations on fire. The 64-year old woman told police, “I wanted to take a stand.”

The same woman was spotted at a McDonalds’ carrying eight logs. Presumably she was taking those logs to the restrooms, not bringing them out.

She did not cause damage to the gas stations; just caused a stink.

The grandma told police she woke up that morning and decided to do something about high gas prices.

That’ll do it. Deplete the supply. It lowers gas prices every time.

source

DTE Energy left some 135,000 customers without power/service this morning.

That’s good business for the local retail stores.

That’s bad business for the local retail stores.

Home Depot, OSH, Frank & Johnny’s Hardware see a rush on generators when the power goes out.

But, a 90-day no questions asked policy at the biggies like Home Depot, sees customers returning the items after power comes back.

I know of a lot of international students who made annual treks to Wal-Mart to buy and return items because of that companies easy return policy.

So, who pays for these abuses?

Can you say “Honest you and me?”

Have you ever abused a company’s return policy?

source

Toot toot!

That would be China blowing its own horn.

China’s agricultural minister is claiming that the Middle Kingdom is a major contributor to world food security for the simple reason that the big Panda feeds one-fourth of the global population.

Yeah, right. China takes care of her own.
Whoopdee doo!

What if every country was satisfied that it were able to just take care of itself? Good enough? I don’t think so.

“We are not causing anybody to care about feeding us” does not make a country a contributor. It just makes that country a non-burden. A contributor is an active participant, no?

Blessed are the peacemakers is what the Good Book says. Not the peace keepers.

Blessed are the contributors, not the well fed.

Are we to say, “Thanks, China. For taking care of yourself?”

source

“Cool it!”

If somebody doesn’t tell the Japanese to “Cool it” they won’t.

The hardworking and diligent in the land of the rising sun will don a suit and tie, sweat bullets and otherwise maintain their appearance until the cows come home unless someone tells them it’s okay to do otherwise.

It’s okay!

Japan’s Environment Minister participated in a fashion show at Tokyo’s Midtown.

The emphasis - it’s okay to take your tie off. But keep those coats on, dang it!

It doesn’t matter what the temps go up to, you here!

Gotta love Japan. Gotta love the way they keep up appearances.

Gotta love those products they churn out even more, eh?

Leave it Honda to build an ultra efficient SUV-sized vehicle that can cover 1300 miles between fill ups. It carries 6-8 passengers - 8 Japanese but just 6, sometimes 5 or even 4 Americans.

But it doesn’t come cheaply.

The vehicle costs $1.5 million and the fuel costs are about 80 cents a mile. Comes to about $1000 per fill-up. (These figures may be a bit old…)

The vehicle is Honda’s Hondajet…a super efficient light jet that weighs about the same as an SUV.

And to think, so many people think of Honda as car and motorbike maker.

I wonder if my wife and kids remember this Sunday is Father’s Day.

On my wish list is a HondaJet. Oh, and flying lessons, too. Oh, and can I have a year’s worth of free fill ups, please?

Images by frenchrice

Osaka’s Sharp Corp has a new residential solar cell panel (polycrystaline) that Sharp says has the highest solar-to-electric conversion rate to date. The new environmentally friendly product is called SunVista and will be released on Jun 18th. The addition of a third main electrode instead of the conventional two is the difference.

Sharp’s conversion rate will be 14.4% compared to the until now best 13.7% of Kyocera.Panels will retail for about $460-990. And Sharp wants to sell 17,000 of them each month!

Let’s see, what’s 17,000 x $600-700?

source