Future car: A magnet-powered hamster wheel?
July 3, 2009
Cruisin' in magnetic style
Magnets very rarely come up in serious renewable energy discussions. But why? It doesn’t get more zero-emission than that! At least that’s the thought behind car designer Harsha Vardhan’s new Transporter TW: an electric vehicle propelled by magnetic fields.
The single-passenger car is technically electric — just like the Tesla Roadster or the impending Chevy Volt — but its electric engine drives magnetic fields instead of tires. Now why would that be advantageous — besides looking exactly as futuristic as people in the 80s thought things would? Apparently, according to Vardhan, the resulting ride would be whisper-quiet, incredibly smooth, and of course completely green.
The two gigantic wheels pictured above are actually filled with superconducting fluid, generating constantly-shifting magnetic fields that work to turn the wheels. They rotate around a small back-entry cockpit, complete with swivel chair and steering mechanism that looks like you could jump to hyperspeed at any moment.
A lot of people grumble when they see concept cars like this, thinking they’re a waste of time when there’s no way they’ll ever hit the road. But it seems like magnetic technology could be adapted to further electric vehicle innovations that have a chance of making it to market — clever Star Wars jokes aside.
To read the original article, visit Green Beat.
Atlanta’s going green!
May 27, 2009
Hey Atlanta, are you interested in participating in your green economy but don’t know where to start? Why not take a class or workshop at the Atlanta Green Expo this weekend to learn more on how YOU can go green!
The Atlanta Green Expo will be held this Saturday, May 30th, 2009 and Sunday, May 31st, 2009 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The expo’s mission is to educate individuals, communities, businesses and policy makers on sustainable living through efficient, renewable energy, and the conservation of water and land resources.
The event will be held 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days, and it’s only $5 for adults (free for children).
Check out the classes and workshops being offered! You can’t afford to miss this:
Greening Your Home and Garden:
This track will include workshops that provide products, services and expertise that would be of interest by individuals for use in their homes and gardens. From solar panels and recycled glass countertops for your home to workshops on starting vegetable gardens in your back yard, this track will include a wealth of information for homeowners.
You’ll also learn how to make your yards into more sustainable and fruitful environments. The Atlanta Green Expo will show you how to create beautiful yards and gardens, done in ways that are environmentally friendly. Topics will include composting, conserving water, natural pest abatement and much, much more.
Green Building and Sustainable Development:
Architects, Developers, Builders, City Planners – this is your area! Here you will find seminars dedicated to illustrating the bottom line benefits of “going green” in your planning and development. Working with members of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), this Track will present the latest trends and available products to help you design and build more LEED certified projects.
Energy, Conservation & Recycling:
The focus of this track is on alternative energy, conservation efforts, and the concept of “refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle”. Attendees can see for themselves the products, services and practices that can help them save energy, conserve resources and save money as well. Energy use is one of the areas with the greatest potential to improve one’s ecological footprint. The main goal for the Atlanta Green Expo classes and workshops is to help us learn how we can start making better choices, by using less energy, moving towards the use of renewable energy sources like solar and wind power, and reducing the environmental impacts to our air, water, and land from many of our current practices.
Food & Agriculture:
What’s better – locally grown or organic foods? What are C.S.A.’s? What’s all this talk about “Permaculture”? Come find out about these issues, the state of American agriculture and food production, and how you can help to make it better. A healthy, sustainable lifestyle is driven by choices about food. Making such choices involves answering questions about how our food is grown and how that growing process affects the environment, as well as who grows our food and how far our food travels. The Atlanta Green Expo classes and workshops will offer insights into the importance of how our food choices affect our health, and of discovering ways of raising foods that are less costly to the environment.
Sustainability Education:
What principles should we follow as we make dozens of small decisions each day to reduce our environmental impact? The Atlanta Green Expo seeks to empower families, businesses and communities toward the long-term ideal of sustainability. In addition to having a hands on, educational “Green Kids Zone”, this track consists mostly of Workshops and Seminars in topics ranging from reducing your Carbon Footprint to the importance of Socially Responsible Investing. Here the Expo classes and workshops will illustrate ways in which we can make our lives and our communities more sustainable.
Transportation:
Transportation is one of our society’s largest contributors to local air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the problems associated with our country’s “addiction to oil”. The Atlanta Green Expo classes will highlight more sustainable options in transportation, and encourage us to find alternate ways to get around instead of continuing to rely on our personal, carbon-based vehicles. Bio-diesel, ethanol and electric vehicles are new technologies that are available today. And there are many under-used, yet “green” methods of transportation that need to be re-emphasized, such as car-pooling, public transit and riding bicycles more often.
Community Action & Involvement:
Come and find out how you can get involved with organizations that promote sustainable practices that affect our community. We will have representatives from religious communities, government, activist and non-profit organizations offering many ways to get involved and to help make a difference! The Atlanta Green Expo is also hoping to work with Habitat for Humanity to build a net-zero, green home which will be available for tours before it is given to a deserving family in the community.
Green Lifestyles:
Being green isn’t just about alternative energy and recycling. It’s about adopting and living a life that is in balance with nature. The Atlanta Green Expo seminars will focus on helping you find products, services and practices which will promote ways in which you and your family can live healthier, happier and more sustainable lives.
Visit the official website for more event details, and don’t forget to spread the word about this interactive, informative and inspiring event! Green Buzz depends upon people like YOU sharing the green news in your community!
For questions about the Atlanta Green Expo, call 904.236.9966 or email info@globalgreenup.com.
eat . live . think green
Glendale, CA gets its green groove on!
May 6, 2009
Graceland has Elvis. St. Louis, the Gateway Arch. And if things proceed according to Planning Commissioner Chang Lee’s vision, Glendale will soon join the ranks of iconic U.S. cities by establishing a high-tech corridor with enough unique features to draw people to the area and create a buzz that would sweep the nation.
Lee is scheduled to pitch the idea to his colleagues on the Planning Commission during their meeting today, May 6. While there is no designated location in the proposal, Councilman John Drayman, who chairs the Redevelopment Agency, said the most likely technology-centered area would be along San Fernando Road.
“The Redevelopment Agency has already embraced a lot of forward-looking ideas,” he said, noting that he was eager to learn more about Lee’s proposal in addition to Councilwoman Laura Friedman’s concept for transforming a portion of the San Fernando Corridor into an Arts District. “I believe our residents want innovative ideas.”
Friedman, who campaigned heavily on the concept of establishing an arts manufacturing district along San Fernando Road, said Monday that she did not think the two ideas were mutually exclusive.
“We’re trying to capitalize on that industry and bring more into Glendale,” she said, noting that she didn’t think a technology corridor would conflict with an arts district. “It’s not like we have to bring something here that doesn’t already exist.”
The state is currently targeting tax incentives to keep entertainment jobs in California — a crucial element in any plan, she said.
While both Disney and DreamWorks continue to transform the northern end of the San Fernando Road corridor, major swaths of the redevelopment area remain home to light industrial and service businesses.
Lee’s proposal would change that.
In addition to attracting companies and individuals who promote research, design and application of advanced technologies in information technology and green energy to a designated area, Lee said the designated area could become a leader in LED lighting use and other renewable energies. He said his presentation is aimed at sparking a conversation that will galvanize the city toward creating a corridor that addresses the needs of the city while increasing its competitive edge.
“The world is changing really fast,” he said. “I want this corridor to invite all the corporations that are involved in [green] and at the same time implement the technology so it can become an example. Once you do this, I think [companies] will move in.”
Lee said multiple companies have pledged to move to the corridor should it come into existence.
The proposal also calls for new “media poles” throughout the district that would draw consumers in with touch-screen games and the ability to take self-pictures, among other features.
“I think this will become that unique feature to draw people in,” Lee said.
After a trip to South Korea to visit Glendale’s newest sister city, Goseong, with former Councilman Bob Yousefian last year, Lee said he was inspired to replicate the country’s success in implementing available technologies in the United States.
“They already are way ahead of us,” Yousefian said. “What we saw in South Korea was more of the application of technology that was created in this country, but not really utilized to its fullest.”
For example, he said, of the financial incentives to employ green technology, converting Glendale’s streetlights to LED bulbs could save $9 million every year.
Officials also said having a technology corridor in Glendale would be particularly helpful in bringing jobs into the U.S. economy — a directive currently encouraged under President Obama.
“Being in a redevelopment area, there are incentives the city can take to help foster the movement of industries to that area,” Drayman said. “I’m all for discussion of attracting industries to our city.”
To view the original article, visit TheGlendaleNewsPress.com.
But California is not the only state creating green buzz! Florida stands on the cusp of a tremendous emergence in green building, clean technology, water conservation, innovative business growth and wise land use planning.
Join us at Green Cities™ Florida May 20-21 in Orlando, Florida, for a unique conference designed to equip business and government with practical steps, relevant case studies and strategic plans for getting started and transforming Florida’s green economy.
And don’t miss the presentation on “California’s Hot New Financing Tool: A Model for Florida?” by Paul D’Arelli!
D’Arelli will be speaking about this innovative financing tool and whether it could be a model for Florida to reduce greenhouse gas.
Learn more about this upcoming sustainability conference at the official website or call 1-800-408-0002.
A solar revolution may be coming to your town
May 4, 2009
This winter, as Congress was scrambling to pass the stimulus package, the bottom fell out of the renewable energy sector — the very industry that lawmakers have held out as our best hope of salvaging the economy. Trade groups like the American Wind Energy Association, which as recently as December was forecasting “another record-shattering year of growth,” began predicting that new installations would plunge by 30 to 50 percent. Solar panel manufacturers that had been blazing a trail of growth announced a wave of layoffs. Some have since cut their workforces in half, as stock prices tumble and plans for new green energy projects stall.
But there is one place where capital is still flowing: Gainesville, Florida. Even as solar panels are stacking up in warehouses around the country, this city of 120,000 is gearing up for a solar power boom, fueled by homegrown businesses and scrappy investors who have descended on the community and are hiring local contractors to install photovoltaic panels on rooftops around town.
One of those investors is Tim Morgan, who owns a chain of electrical contracting companies. His industry has been hit hard by the downturn, but he has a plan to salvage his business. Morgan intends to rent roof space from eighty Gainesville businesses and install twenty-five-kilowatt solar generating systems on each of them, for a total of two megawatts — a project that would nearly double Florida’s solar-generating capacity. He estimates the venture will cost between $16 million and $20 million and bring in $1.4 million a year. Already, he has lined up financing, found local contractors to do the installation, and staked claims to the rooftops of at least fifty businesses. “And we’re just one tiny player,” Morgan said. “Look around. You can see how fast this thing is going to move.”
Indeed, around Gainesville similar projects abound. Paradigm Properties, a residential real estate company, plans to install photovoltaic arrays on fifty local apartment buildings and its downtown headquarters. Achira Wood, a custom carpentry outlet, is plastering the roof of its workshop — roughly 50,000 square feet of galvanized steel — with solar panels. Interstate Mini Storage is doing the same with its sprawling flat-roofed compound. Tom Lane, who owns ECS Solar Energy Systems, a local solar contractor, told me he’s planning to expand his staff from eleven to at least fifty. “The activity we’ve seen is just explosive,” he said. “I’ve been in the business thirty years and I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Why is the renewable energy market in Gainesville booming while it’s collapsing elsewhere in the country? The answer boils down to policy. In early February, the city became the first in the nation to adopt a “feed-in tariff” — a bold incentive to foster renewable energy. Under this system, the local power company is required to buy renewable energy from independent producers, no matter how small, at rates slightly higher than the average cost of production. This means anyone with a cluster of solar cells on their roof can sell the power they produce at a profit. The costs of the program are passed on to ratepayers, who see a small rise in their electric bills (in Gainesville the annual increase is capped at 1 percent). While rate hikes are seldom popular, the community has rallied behind this policy, because unlike big power plant construction — the costs of which are also passed on to the public — everyone has the opportunity to profit, either by investing themselves or by tapping into the groundswell of economic activity the incentive creates.
Though Gainesville is the first to take the leap, other U.S. cities are also moving toward adopting feed-in tariffs. Hawaii plans to enact one this summer, and at least ten other states are considering following suit. Among them is hard-hit Michigan, where Governor Jennifer Granholm has promised that the policy will help salvage the state’s economy and create thousands of jobs by allowing “every homeowner, every business” to become “a renewable energy entrepreneur.” There is also a bill for a federal feed-in tariff before Congress.
Could this approach help revive our renewable energy market, and give a needed jolt to the U.S. economy? There is reason to believe it could. In Germany, which pioneered the modern feed-in tariff, it has given rise to the world’s most vibrant green energy sector. More than forty countries, from Nicaragua to Israel, have followed Germany’s lead, often with dramatic results. Study after study has shown that not only do feed-in tariffs deliver more renewable energy than other market incentives, they do so at a lower cost. “People hesitate to call anything a panacea,” says Toby Couture, an energy and financial markets analyst at the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “But if you’re interested in creating jobs, getting capital flowing, and expanding renewable energy, feed-in tariffs get the job done — often more cost effectively than other policies.”
Visit AlterNet to read the complete and original article.
If you’re interested in becoming part of this solar revolution, don’t miss the Renewable Energy Innovations workshop at Green Cities Florida presented by sustainability experts John Lushetsky, Colin Read, Jamie Schlinkmann, and Joe Treshler. This panel of experts will provide an in-depth discussion on alternative energy including the latest breakthroughs, where new projects are being installed, how to get the financing you need, and how to build innovative energy projects for utilities, large and small facilities, and even automobiles.
To learn more about Green Cities Florida, visit the official website or call 1-800-408-0002.
100 Cities: The Best And Worst Air Quality
April 29, 2009
America’s air is markedly cleaner than it was nearly 40 years ago, when the Clean Air Act was passed. Toxic chemicals, smog and soot are less pervasive today. But science has also taught us, since then, that lower levels of pollutants do serious harm — to our lungs, our hearts and circulatory systems and to the development of our children. Science has shown that, despite significant reduction in acid rain, mountain streams are still struggling to recover from decades of abuse, leaving water there toxic to much fish and plant life.
In other words, as the American Lung Association’s 10th annual State of the Air puts it: “Air pollution continues to threaten the lives and health of millions of people in the United States despite great progress since the modern Clean Air Act was first passed in 1970. Even as the nation explores the complex challenges of global warming and energy, air pollution remains widespread and dangerous.”
The report, released this week, focuses on the two forms of air pollution most dangerous to lungs: Smog (a.k.a. ozone) and soot (a.k.a. fine particulates). Particulate pollution was analyzed in two ways — short-term and long-term levels.
Ozone forms on hot sunny days when smokestack and tailpipe pollution interacts with heat and sunlight. The result is ozone, a major component of smog. It’s the same molecule that, in the upper atmosphere, protects our skin from harmful radiation from the sun; but at ground level it scars lung tissue, causing permanent damage and making it unhealthy to exercise or, for sensitive individuals like the young, the elderly and those with lung disease, even breathe. Particulates can come in the form of familiar dust and soot, but also in the form of chemicals that form as tiny droplets after being spewed out of tailpipes and smokestacks.
More than 175 million Americans — six in 10 — live in counties where high ozone levels were detected — nearly twice as many as were at risk in 2008. That increase is largely due to new government calculations that account for new scientific understanding of risk of exposure at lower levels for shorter durations.
Even as cities have taken steps to reduce pollution sources, global warming is producing more hot sunny days, extending the ozone pollution season (April heat wave, anyone?) and increasing the number of days likely to produce unhealthy levels of ozone pollution.
Of the 25 most-polluted U.S. cities, 16 had worse ozone pollution than one year ago, according to the American Lung Association. Thirteen had worse particulate pollution.
Check out:
- The Cleanest Cities in the U.S.
- 25 Cities With The Worst Air Pollution: Ozone (Smog)
- 25 Counties With The Worst Air Pollution
Visit The Daily Green for the above mentioned lists and to read the original article.
Then get to Orlando for Green Cities Florida on May 20-21, 2009 and learn what actions community, business, and government leaders can take to be greener, cleaner and more sustainable!
Be sure to check out Dr. Penelope Canan’s presentation “Understanding the Global Carbon-Climate-Human System” which brings together natural and social science perspectives to understand global warming and climate change, their causes, consequences, and feedback loops.
To learn more about Green Cities Florida sustainability conference, visit the official website or call 1-800-408-0002.
Sustainable Development Podcast by Alex Hinds
April 1, 2009
Check out Alex Hinds’ sustainability podcast where he talks about why he hopes the Obama administration keeps the ‘yes we can’ attitude towards green building, sustainable development, and making sustainability a core practice of building.
“Its time, in my opinion, to rewrite our zoning codes, our building codes, our health and public work codes to really address what’s needed to have more renewable energy. Less use of fossil fuels, and to take into account how climate change is going to affect our public health systems, our agriculture, and infrastructure.” – Alex Hinds
Visit http://greencitiesmedia.com/2009/02/podcast-alex-hinds-interview/ to listen to this green podcast!
Alex Hinds is the president of the board of the California Planning Foundation and is currently the Interim Director for the Center for Sustainable Communities at Sonoma State University in California.
Alex will be a speaker at Green Cities Florida! To learn more, visit http://greencities.com/usa/florida/orlando/2009.
Florida Atlantic University will receive nearly $1.2 million from the federal government to continue research into harnessing energy from the powerful Gulf Stream off Florida’s coast.
Democratic Congressman Ron Klein joined scientists on March 13 at the school’s Center for Ocean Energy Technology in Dania Beach to announce the funding. Klein says the money will help researchers in their quest to harness the powerful Gulf Stream as a new potential commercial energy source.
Researchers at the school are studying the possibility of using the current to drive thousands of underwater turbines. They say the project could one day produce as much energy as perhaps 10 nuclear power plants, and supply one-third of Florida’s electricity.
Want to see more?
Check out the demonstrative video at http://greencitiesmedia.com/2009/03/florida-atlantic-univ-gets-money-for-energy-project/.
Are You Ready For Some Green Education and Inspiration?
March 11, 2009
Green Cities Florida™ is an exciting 3-day forum designed to open new business opportunities and create new jobs throughout Florida by employing green business practices. A green business is one that meets customer needs, treats the environment well, and is profitable – often referred to as the triple bottom line (people, planet, profit).
If you’re interested in learning how to integrate sustainable practices into your business, government and community; or starting a business that can generate profits through sustainability; or networking with green experts in multiple sectors and industries, this is the ONE conference you won’t want to miss!
Workshops include:
- What Makes a Business Green
- Green Manufacturing
- Introduction to Green Governance
- Understanding and Responding to Climate Change
- Event Greening
- Sustainable Community Design
- Capital Market Partnerships
- Clean Tech Economic Development
- Renewable Energy Polices and Programs
- Innovation in Alternative Energy
- Transit Oriented Design
- Surviving and Thriving from Natural Disasters
- Waste Wise Communities
- Venture Capital & Financing the Green Economy
- Green Hospitality & Tourism
- Green Marketing & Public Relations
- Green Building Training Course (6 hr CECs)
- And much more!
(For the complete program, click HERE.)
Interested in participating in Green Cities™ Florida? Call 1-800-408-0002 or…
Click here to register
Click here to volunteer
Click here to become a sponsor
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