Renewable and Green Energy News and Updates
If it's about solar energy, renewable energy or biofuel, it's in here. Photovoltaic at it's best. And most endless. Solar power is a hot topic (get the pun?!) and we try to cover it and other alternative energy solutions from a 360 perspective.
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Report Links Biofuel Expansion and Higher US Food Prices
Full Disclosure: We often question studies that link biofuel expansion and food prices together since there is so much evidence to the contrary. However, a report produced by Purdue University economists for the Farm Foundation policy organization has cited two factors in the rise in food prices (which it notes are unlikely to fall within the next two years). The first is a dramatic rise in the importation of soybeans from China. The second is US government support for ethanol, including subsidies.
Tropicana Uses Oranges as Biofuel
We like to think of oranges as a source of energy for some morning get up and go (either with or without some vodka, but preferably with), but orange and fruit juice purveyor Tropicana is showing us that oranges can be used for much more when it comes to energy. The company has launched a billboard to promote its products in French (“Energie Naturelle!”) and is powered entirely from an electro chemical reaction that uses the oranges as the catalyst.
New Label Lets You Know if Your Product Was Made Using Wind Energy
WindMade is a global label (the first of its kind, actually) that allows consumers to know if the products were made by companies using clean energy wind power. The label made its US debut recently on Global Wind Day in New York City. The proposed standard for the label was released at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi in January. It requires that companies get at least twenty-five percent of their electricity from wind energy.
Save Energy: Don’t Use a Pay TV Box
If you have pay-television services, and more than eighty percent of Americans do, then that means that you most likely also have one of the one hundred and sixty million set-top boxes that sit atop a television set. Do you know how much those boxes collectively cost to operate per year? The figure is enough to make a pinhole in the national debt – three billion (yes, billion) dollars. And why is that? Because the pay-TV boxes never go to sleep. It’s running electricity at all times.
Batmobile Goes Eco Friendly for Upcoming Batman World Tour
Perhaps you are not quite geek enough to know that there was an upcoming Batman Live World Arena Tour. Oh, but there is. And when you attend it (which certainly now that you know of it, you will), you will see a leaner and, more importantly, greener version of the iconic Batmobile. The new ride was designed by Gordon Murray for the aforementioned live arena tour and turns Batman’s crime-fighting ride of choice into a crime-fighting and earth-loving ride of choice. See, even super heroes can be earth friendly.
Solar Panel Price to Drop by a Full Dollar by 2013
As we all know, it’s not just the need for clean energy to stem climate change or the cost reduction in monthly bills that will or will not make solar energy viable. There’s also the cost of converting existing energy solutions to solar energy solutions that keeps consumers and businesses from adopting solar energy as their primary energy source. However, according to a new report from Ernst & Young, the price of solar panels is dropping so quickly that by 2013 they will be half of what they cost in 2009.
Biofuel Jet Could Go London to Tokyo in Two Hours
Whoa, Nelly! A passenger jet unveiled recently at the Paris Air Show boasts all of the following: biofuel-powered, hypersonic (3125 miles per hour, four times the speed of sound) and thus able to transport passengers relatively cleanly between London and Tokyo in just over two hours. By “relatively cleanly” we mean that the jet claims almost zero emissions. The plane, which is called the ZEHST (Zero Emission Hypersonic Transportation) is made by European plane manufacturer EADS (parent company of Airbus) The future may be now.
Is Obama’s $120 Million Energy Efficiency Plan Doable?
We have previously been critical about the Obama administration being all talk, no action when it comes to energy policy. Maybe we have reason to believe (though we think this is a big maybe) with the announcement of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP) last week – a one hundred and twenty million dollar program to improve the energy efficiency of America’s manufacturers. Yes, we know, you’re saying “Wait…is there any manufacturing going on in America these days?” Excellent question.
Power Your iPhone at the Beach Using a Bikini Made of Solar Panels
It’s true. It exists. It is being made by a company called Solar Coterie. It’s a bikini, which you can even swim in, that is constructed of tiny solar panels. So while you’re laying there, presumably protected from skin cancer in a nice layer of biodegradable and organic sunscreen, you can also be generating power to pump up the jams. Or to power your iPad, though we’d like to think that if you’re at the beach or pool you have gotten yourself off line to enjoy the “nature” of the area.
Electric Land Rovers Make Appearance in Safari Parks
You’re in a bit of a conundrum. You hate Land Rovers and all of the waste and carbon emission that they stand for. But at the same time, you would like to go on a South African safari tour. Now, let’s for a moment overlook the carbon footprint that you’ll leave getting to said safari tour. If your issue is the waste of the Land Rover, then issue solved with … wait for it … the electric Land Rover!
