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Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Keeps (Greener) Truckin’ On

It’s a one-two green punch for the trucking industry: today the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced a program with the U.S. EPA to help get rid of older trucks with dirty emissions, and just yesterday the company New Energy Technologies announced another step forward for device that can harvest sustainable kinetic energy from trucks as they, well, keep truckin’ on.

If you ever grew up on an urban truck route (which I did), the idea of green trucks might seem like an oxymoron but hey if the trucking industry can get their sustainability act together then by golly you betcha just about any major commercial sector can (except for maybe this one).

Is Distributed Thermal Storage Next?

03.10.10 @ Energy Application

Here’s one electricity storage technology that’s been around for over 20 years, under the radar, but might be due for a resurgence in interest with the addition of more wind power to the grid. Wind tends to blow at night when we don’t need it.

Steffes Electric Thermal Storage makes devices that store excess off-peak renewable electricity very simply, as heat, by heating up electric coils surrounded by ceramic bricks in a sealed container. The ceramic bricks are thermal sinks. They soak up the heat slowly, and when triggered to, can release that heat, just as slowly, providing low-cost heating.

Excess electricity generated can be stored at any time, like at night from excess wind power, and then released at any time it’s needed; on demand, in the form of heat.

Because it is useful for businesses and homeowners, it is distributed energy storage.

Prototype Solar Power-Assist for Buses

03.10.10 @ Transportation

Sunpods Inc. is California-based manufacturing company. They produce modular, fully integrated and tested solar power generation systems. Recently they have come out with an idea of the first solar power-assist system for buses. They should be applauded for developing it in a mere six weeks. Their partner is Bauer Intelligent Transportation. The system developed [...]
Posted in: Public Transit, Solar Power, Transportation

Steven Chu: “It Could Be Very, Very Bad”

03.09.10 @ Climate Change

“It’s not too late; we can minimize the alteration, or we can just plow on as usual … and if we plow on as usual … it could be very, very bad.” So says Nobel Prizewinner for Physics, Steven Chu, who is now Energy Secretary of the Obama administration Department of Energy – at Stanford University this week.

“Speaking to the choir” (peer reviewed scientists and the educated already understand the problem) but really addressing the Senate Republicans who need to pass climate legislation, Chu stressed the danger and risks of inaction.

Much of the outcome will depend on the Earth’s response to an anticipated temperature increase of five or six degrees centigrade, an effect that won’t take hold for another 100 to 150 years, he said.

That’s when the oceans, a vast storage sink for carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, are expected to reach capacity and begin expelling gases back into the air.

There are great uncertainties as to the outcome awaiting us if we continue business as usual by relying on a fossil-fuel-guzzling energy infrastructure to meet everyday needs, said Chu.

Arizona Legislature Considers Stuffing Used Tires into Abandoned Mines

03.09.10 @ Energy Application

Given the state of the economy you’d think they’d be pinching every penny but it appears that the State of Arizona has money to burn – perhaps literally. Last week the House voted in favor of a bill that would use old tires to fill abandoned mines. The bill’s supporters cite the growing problem of used tire dumps, but apparently they don’t keep up with the latest business news. Magnum D’Or and InfoSpi are just two of the rapidly growing number of companies that see the potential for recycling those tire dumps into real money – and creating more green jobs to boot.

Squandering an opportunity to make money is bad enough, but the Arizona bill does something much worse. Tires burn, right? Doesn’t everybody know that? Tire fires are hard enough to put out when they’re in open dumps. The idea of stuffing millions of tires into abandoned mines sounds a little less than common sensical… that is, if you know anything about underground mine fires…

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Category: Hydrogen - Fuel Cells