I was the first one in my neighborhood to get solar panels. That was when I lived in Japan and more than 20+ years ago. I wonder if I can be the first one in Sunnyvale (home to Yahoo) to have a wind turbine on the roof of my house. I wonder if I want to be the first person to have a wind turbine on house.

Image by stuant63

Home wind turbines are coming and in many cases are already here. But, in truth, call me shortsighted but if I live in a place where it’s windy enough for me to get the benefit of a whirlygig on my house, I think I might want to move. Perhaps if I lived alone out in the middle of a field in the middle of the plains of Oklahoma, or on a mountain top or, or…

About the only real reason I can think of someone wanting a wind turbine on their house would be the ‘cool factor.’ And what about noise? And they have to be big enough to really get some power generated out of them…and, and…

Am I really being too shortsighted here? I can’t see the forest for the wind turbines.

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Jason Keath at “Jason Keath – Where Old Media Goes to Die” offered up his 5-step plan to “Green Hosting”.

1. Buy Your Own Offset Credits -Resources: How to buy carbon credits (Ehow.com) | Carbon credit price comparisons. Read Jason’s tip.
2. Use Hosting that Buys Credits – Jason’s recomendation – One good option in this direction is Dreamhost.
3. Use Hosting that Buys Green Energy – Better than buying credits when you use energy from wind farms, solar panels, and so on. Jason’s Resources: ThinkHost | HostPapa | HostGator
4. Use Hosting that Produces Green Energy -
   Some, but not all, in this category (from Treehugger.com):

   WebCtel – Solar

   SolarWebWorks – Solar

   EcoSky – Solar & wind

   The Green Web Host – Mixed sources, mostly wind I think

   Locomotive Media – Wind

   Elfon – Wind

   SustainableMarketing – Wind

   Aiso – Solar

   Taproot Hosting

   SolarHost – Solar

5. Use Your Own Green Powered Servers. Build you own wind turbine or hang solar panels.

Great ideas, Jason! Thanks!

Image courtesy of Nico Macdonald

There’s a green prison farm, the Cedar Creek Corrections Center, about 25 miles outside Olympia, the capital of Washington state, where inmates, murderers and elsewise, are being used to cultivate the green prison farms.

A medium-security inmate at the Cedar Creek Corrections Center, uses a botanical keybook to identify moss as part of a forest conservation research project

It is estimated that the States have paid $49 billion to feed, house, clothe, treat and supervise 2.3 million offenders in 2007. It’s about time the inmates of the 1,821 facilities begin feeding for themselves, in the least, making good use by recycling what they can.

One prison grew some 8,000 pounds of organic vegetables. Another prison uses waste wood chips to run water boilers. Yet another uses a wind turbine to generate power, saving $2,280/year. A Blythe, CA prison makes use of 6,200 solar panels, enough to provide power to 4,100 homes.

In North Carolina a prison switched to chemical free cleaners and vegetable based inks. In Oregon, old appliances were replaced with energy-efficient ones. Old prison blues are recycled to make diaper bags for women’s shelters and dog beds for animal shelters.

Yeah, it’s easy to tell inmates to recycle, be good stewards, make better use of materials. I wonder, do we all need to take a turn behind bars to learn what is best for our planet?

Image by DiscoverMagazine

The Statue of Liberty is dubbed as a symbol of freedom to the shackled, a symbol of hope to the deprived, a symbol of refuge to the homeless and beyond all, a glorious symbol of human spirit and its undying faith in a better tomorrow. The planet today is at a delicate and vital turn where every move we make could make or break the future for the beautiful planet that we all call ‘Home’.

This present and the consequential future largely depends on the way we treat our planet and how well we adapt to renewable and clean sources of energy by inviting the alternate power into our homes and lives. It then seems only an obvious matter that the ‘Statue of Liberty’ should also spread the ‘Green Light’ with her eternal golden torch.

Why is the Statue of Liberty green?

First of all – and less relevant to the environment, it has a very well known green tinge largely due to the copper of the statue reacting with the elements to produce the copper salts which give its green hue. Now, it only seems appropriate that the visual green inclination is being backed up by some solid green intent. If the ‘First lady of Freedom’ cannot break the shackles of conventional power and fossil fuel, then it would surely have been indeed a shame!

Secondly, it’s because the Lady Liberty and her flaming light are now being lit up each night with wind power that is being bought by the government from a company that produces wind energy from its farms in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Pepco Energy supplies all the energy that lights up the statue and while it looks strange that New York is not tapping into offshore wind energy that is available in plenty at such close quarters, it seems the wheels are in motion to ensure that the statue is indeed powered by green energy produced in New York.

The Statue of Liberty has always been a symbol to many of a bright future. Perhaps now she can be a symbol to all of a bright green future.

Images courtesy of 1, 2, 3, 4

The north-east of England is soon to become the centre of an enormous wind farm industry that is being proposed to be set up because of its close proximity to the sea. Today with 3GW (a supply enough for 2m homes) of the 75GW of electricity consumed, Britain has come up to the fifth position, leaving behind Denmark in the European green league.

By the next decade 40GW of electric power will come from off-shore wind farms with a clear 50% of it coming from the British shores. Apart from this, the booming wind farm industry would attract over £50 billion in investments, provide 50,000 jobs and by the year 2010 earn UK 50% of the shares in the European market.

The British Wind Energy Authority (BWEA) is quite confident that it will be able to reach its target by 2020 but the only obstacle in their path to success is the delay on the part of the Government in sanctioning their plans. Isn’t that what Governments are for? – via Telegraph.co.uk

Image courtesy of CovLtwt

Hokkaido is Japan’s northernmost main island. The island recently hosted the G-8 Summit at Lake Toya. I know the place, got a speeding ticket there once, which, btw, has nothing to do with this post.

The Wakkanai Alternative and Renewable Energy Study Group and Heiren Energy Inc. are jointly testing a system that will store hydrogen that was produced through electrolysis of water.  Wakkanai sits to the extreme north of Hokkaido. What’s different is that the electricity used to run the project is coming from wind turbines that have been installed in the area. Confusion starts – “The hydrogen will be reacted with toluene to produce an organic hydride, allowing it to be stored in a liquid state at room temperature and ambient pressure, then transported safely by tank truck.”

There’s an energy summit that is going to take place in Hokkaido next week July 25-28 in Sapporo, the capital of the island. Hydrogen made from the wind turbine/electrolysis will be used to power an automobile that will be demonstrated at the summit.

Wind + hydrogen = cars on the move. Good Earth-friendly equation. No?

source

Can an oil man talk America into weaning itself from its dependency on the black gold? Is there a quick fix, even partial quick fix.

Pickens thinks so. It’s wind power.

What do you think?

Wind power. There’s an obvious reason, okay, maybe not so obvious reason to some why it is such a good thing. Wind power was attributed to helping Tyson Gay run the fastest ever 100 meters in history – 9.68 at the U. S. Olympic trials in Eugene, OR. The record, however, was aided with the help of a tailwind that was deemed too strong.

In competition, winds over 2.0 meters/second cause a runner’s time to be disqualified. Gay had a tailwind of 4.1 meters/sec.  The world record is 9.72 seconds, set by Jamaica’s Usain Bolt. GP wants to point out that when the wind is at our backs, wind power, too, there is potential to set even more important records than dash. How about a record for the least amount of fossil fuels used for example.

Wind power…there’s something to it.

Japan was going great guns on adding wind power generating facilities…until last year. The number of new facilities added in ‘07 was half of what was added in ‘06. New wind turbines that started operation in Japan last year had a capacity of 185Kw. It was double that in ‘06.

There are reasons for the drop off:

1. Utilities in northern Japan which is best suited for wind turbines have restricted the construction of new sites

2. New earthquake-resistance standards are tougher even for planned facilities

3. The strong euro and high prices for steel materials make wind turbines much more expensive

4. activists fighting for protection of scenery in the area are preventing progress in use of wind turbines

5. activists fighting on behalf of animals in the areas are preventing progress as well

Japan has a goal of 3 million KW generated by 2010. As of 2007, the capacity was 1.67 million. The goal now seems unattainable. Some 40% of the country’s overall wind power capacity is generated in Hokkaido, Aomori, and Akita, all in northern Japan.

Question: Why can’t we all get along?

World’s number 5 oil exporter, Norway has big energy resources and by 2025 it could become “Europe’s battery”.

The island of Utsira, Norway – image by tualatin

A recent study talked about developing sea-based wind parks that would allow access up to 8,000 megawatts of renewable energy, equivalent to about eight nuclear power plants. Exporting green energy would actually help the European Union to attain their goal to get 20-percent of the total energy from renewable sources such as solar, wind, waves or hydro power.

The investment for the wind parks would cost up to $44 billion but if we consider they pump out 2.2 million barrels of oil per day, it will probably take only 6 months to cover it.

Norway has the longest coastline in Europe and using wind power they expect to have “access to up to 40 terrawatt hours of renewable energy in 2020-2025, of which about half would come from offshore wind power.” If the authorities will consider the project and it will be built, it may cut 20 million tonnes of heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions.

Way to go Norway.