In Germany Solar Energy Up Nuclear Energy Down

Posted on May 31, 2011 by quest

Europe’s economic powerhouse, Germany, announced plans Monday to abandon nuclear energy over the next 11 years, outlining an ambitious strategy in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster to replace atomic power with renewable energy sources. Chancellor Angela Merkel said she hopes the transformation to more solar, wind and hydroelectric power serves as a roadmap for other countries. “We believe that we can show those countries who decide to abandon nuclear power – or not to start using it – how it is possible to achieve growth, creating jobs and economic prosperity while shifting the energy supply toward renewable energies,” Merkel said. Merkel’s government said it will shut down all 17 nuclear power plants in Germany – the world’s fourth-largest economy and Europe’s biggest – by 2022. The government had no immediate estimate of the transition’s overall cost. The plan sets Germany apart from most of the other major industrialized nations. Among the other Group of Eight countries, only Italy has abandoned nuclear power, which was voted down in a referendum after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

The decision represents a remarkable about-face for Merkel‘s center-right government, which only late last year pushed through a plan to extend the life span of the country’s reactors, with the last scheduled to go offline around 2036. But Merkel, who holds a Ph.D. in physics, said industrialized, technologically advanced Japan’s “helplessness” in the face of the Fukushima disaster made her rethink the technology’s risks.Phasing out nuclear power within a decade will be a challenge, but it will be feasible and ultimately give Germany a competitive advantage in the renewable energy era, Merkel said.”As the first big industrialized nation, we can achieve such a transformation toward efficient and renewable energies, with all the opportunities that brings for exports, developing new technologies and jobs,” Merkel told reporters. The government said the renewable energy sector already employs about 370,000 people.

Germany’s seven oldest reactors, already taken off the grid pending safety inspections following the March catastrophe at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, will remain offline permanently, Merkel said. The plants accounted for about 40 percent of the country’s nuclear power capacity. At the time of the Japanese disaster, Germany got just under a quarter of its electricity from nuclear power

Chicago Skyscraper to Generate Solar Electricity

Sustainable Africa Show Lights Up Health and Solar

Posted on May 29, 2011 by quest

Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Cape Town, South Africa – Royal Philips Electronics, is once again traveling across Africa to raise awareness about how healthcare and lighting solutions can improve the quality of life across the continent. The Cape Town to Cairo road show 2011 (from 12th May to 11th July, 2011) is the second African road show undertaken by Philips. The road show will cover 12,000 kilometers in 62 days, visiting a total of twelve countries. “As many developed countries are struggling to stimulate economic growth, a strong middle class of 313 million, or 34% of the African population, is on the rise in what is still considered the world’s most impoverished continent,’’ said Dr. Gottfried Dutiné, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Markets and Innovation at Philips, in Cape Town today. “This group of mainly young, eager and mobile Africans is rapidly rivaling the middle classes of China and India. Philips sees this continent as a new growth market.”

“Even in the 21st century, we still allow eight million children and close to half a million mothers around the world to die each year from preventable complications related to pregnancy and child birth.”, said JJ van Dongen, General Manager, Philips Healthcare Africa & Country Manager Philips South Africa.“This makes the availability of and access to high quality, affordable care for all mothers and children an issue of high priority for policy makers and societies. Philips recognizes this need and through this road show wants to create dialogue and cooperation between governments, local healthcare workforces, non-governmental organizations, foundations, healthcare professional associations, and research institutions to help mothers, newborn babies and children obtain care.”

During the roadshow Philips will also introduce new solar powered lighting solutions aimed at providing a healthier and safer home environment. Today an estimated 560 million Africans live without electricity. Better lighting is likely to make home child birth safer and help reduce the very high infant mortality rate throughout the continent. This is part of Philips’ commitment to both develop sustainable solutions for Africa and to foster its partnership with the Dutch government on the ‘Sustainable Energy Solutions for Africa’ (SESA) project, which aims to provide 10 million people with affordable, sustainable energy services across 10 sub-Saharan African countries by 2015.

VISIT THE SOLAR WALL

Oregon Sustainability Center Solar and Ion Ready

Posted on May 25, 2011 by quest

SANYO North America Corporation and InSpec Group announce a new 679-kilowatt solar system to be designed and installed by InSpec for the Oregon Sustainability Center in Portland, Oregon. The project also includes a 30-kilowatt hour large-scale lithium-ion battery storage system, which will be connected in line with the rooftop PV system, capable of supplying DC electricity for applications such as LED lighting. InSpec will be managing the solar and smart energy system design and installation for the building which is expected to be completed by the beginning of 2013, and will employ SANYO solar modules and batteries.

“The Oregon Sustainability Center is proactive in their use of green building materials, and the choice of SANYO HIT modules makes sense, as they are perfect for these types of powerful rooftop system installations, where space is limited,” said Charles Hanasaki, president of the Solar and Smart Energy Division. “We value our partnership with InSpec because they share our vision of helping customers to achieve a reduction in energy consumption from non-renewable sources and improving efficiency of energy used.” Yasuyoshi Kawanishi, president of SANYO Solar of Oregon, LLC, added, “Living in Oregon, our engineers are inspired by sustainability, and it makes us proud that our work is becoming a part of Oregon, especially in a landmark building like the Oregon Sustainability Center.”

The Oregon Sustainability Center is planned to be a future home to Oregon’s leaders in sustainable business, government, and education. The structure is designed to be the greenest high-rise ever built, with locally-sourced building materials, its own energy generation and ways to collect and treat water on-site, qualifying it for Living Building Challenge certification, which requires meeting net-zero energy and water performance as well as toxin free, locally-sourced materials. The Oregon Sustainability Center will be a showcase for green building, green business and community development. The building will demonstrate sustainable practices and will offer ways to connect the community to state and local sustainability resources, including green job training opportunities.

SOLAR GOLF CART

Eco Friendly Sustainable Clothes You Grow

Posted on May 22, 2011 by quest

The concept for BioCouture originated during the research for Suzanne Leeʼs book ʻFashioning The Future: tomorrowʼs wardrobe.’ A serendipitous conversation in 2003 with Dr. David Hepworth, a biologist and materials scientist, presented a new vision of future fashion – one that emerges fully-formed from a vat of liquid.

Rather than exploit plants or petrochemicals to provide the raw material for fabric BioCouture is  investigating the use of microbes to grow a textile biomaterial. Certain bacteria will spin  microfibrils of pure cellulose during fermentation which form a dense layer that can be harvested and dried. It can then either be used wet or molded onto a 3D form, like a dress shape, or dry it flat and then cut and sewed into a garment. From there it can readily be dyed and printed on the material and since it requires far less dye than other fibres it has a huge environmental advantage.

With so many environmental concerns related to the production, consumption and disposal of fashion textiles BioCouture is pioneering a new eco-friendly and sustainable alternative. The future scale up of this material would also seek to use waste streams, for example from the food or drinks industry, to fuel the microbial-cellulose production.

What Suzanne started as a fashion project has now evolved into a bio materials project. They are only just  beginning to imagine what other uses there might be for this material. Right now these clothes  are experimental prototypes and not commercially available, and, as the material is still in development. See: Susanne Lee on growing clothes

NEW YORK ECO FASHION WEEK

Solar Energy A Source For Brighter Earth Days

Posted on April 22, 2011 by quest

As we welcome the 41st Earth Day it is interesting to look around and take stock of where we are; as going green continues to go mainstream. It is almost impossible not to heed two events that are calling on all human beings around the world to bring about change to our environmental mentality.

The most recent has been the devastating Tsunami that hit Japan and that subsequently caused the explosion at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. And of course the other was the catastrophic BP oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. At this point you might expect that the blame for the events should lay at the feet of big oil and nuclear power companies, after all they build them. And yet the responsibility for allowing toxic energy producers to continue, lies with each of us. Much of the early debates about the environment have centered around the idea of saving the birds, trees and environment, as if humans aren’t a part of it. But what new believers of environmental change are conveying is that what we are talking about is saving the earth so humans can live here.

Solar and other renewable energy sources such as wind and biomass offer a far, far less destructive method for providing the energy we need, and do so in a way that provide air we can breathe; water we can drink and an earth that’s healthy enough to sustain life for all living creatures. In that regards California and other states and cities are implementing attractive and innovative incentive programs to encourage renewable investments. The hope is that this will lead to even healthier and brighter Earth Days in the future.

EXPLORE YOUR ENVIRONMENT

Green Pioneer Majora Carter Wins Peabody Award

Posted on April 3, 2011 by quest

Majora Carter Wins Peabody Award for her radio show The Promised Land with Majora Carter, a forum for deep, eye-opening conversations about the environment and justice; Peabody Says: If there’s such a thing as eye-opening radio, Carter’s series, devoted to helping her audience envision a more just, sustainable world, is it.

Majora Carter founded Sustainable South Bronx in 2001 — when very few people were even talking about “sustainability,” and even fewer in places like the South Bronx. By 2003, she coined the term “Green the Ghetto” as she pioneered one of the nation’s first urban green-collar job training and placement systems. Her organization spearheaded new policies and legislation that fueled demand for those jobs, improved the lives of New Yorkers, and served as a model for the nation.

Majora’s 2006 TEDtalk was one of the first six presentations to launch that groundbreaking website. Since 2008, her consulting company has been exporting climate adaptation, urban micro-agribusiness, and leadership development strategies for business, state and local governments, federal agencies, foundations, universities, and economically underperforming communities.

Here’s what Robert Redford says about his Promised Land…What’s your Promised look like?