Environmentally-friendly technologies - everything you need around the house to protect the environment from electric and hybrid cars to solar panels to water-saving shower heads.
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Envirotech
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Hurricanes growing fiercer with global warming - MIT News Office
Hurricanes growing fiercer with global warming - MIT News Office: "Hurricanes have grown significantly more powerful and destructive over the last three decades due in part to global warming, says an MIT professor who warns that this trend could continue. 'My results suggest that future warming may lead to an upward trend in [hurricanes'] destructive potential, and--taking into account an increasing coastal population--a substantial increase in hurricane-related losses in the 21st century,' reports Kerry Emanuel in a paper appearing in the July 31 online edition of the journal Nature.
Emanuel is a professor of meteorology in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences."
Thursday, July 28, 2005
College licenses %u201Csafe%u201D PVC technology | News
College licenses %u201Csafe%u201D PVC technology | News: "Technology developed at the College of William and Mary, designed to reduce environmental hazards associated with PVC, is a step closer to the market today, as a leading U.S. corporation has signed a license to commercialize a class of safer additives.PVC%u2014polyvinyl chloride%u2014 is the second most widely used plastic in the world, found in vinyl siding, flooring, piping, wall coverings and wire coatings. In order to prevent degradation upon heating, heat stabilizers are added to PVC. In today%u2019s industry, usage of many of the most effective additives is restricted because the substances contain toxic heavy metals such as cadmium and lead."
TST, Inc. Turns to Ultra-Clean Fuel Cells to Reduce Pollution While Managing Energy Costs and Reliability
TST, Inc. Turns to Ultra-Clean Fuel Cells to Reduce Pollution While Managing Energy Costs and Reliability: "FuelCell Energy, Inc. (NasdaqNM: FCEL), a leading developer of ultra-clean electric power plants, and its partner Alliance Power Inc., a consultant in citing economical and environmentally friendly distributed generation facilities, today announced the signing of a contract to provide 500-kilowatts (kW) of green electricity to a secondary aluminum smelter in southern California that will meet or exceed the region's tough air pollution standards. Electricity produced by two 250-kW Direct FuelCell(R) (DFC(R)) power plants will be sold to TST, Inc., of Fontana, Calif., as part of a five-year power purchase agreement. The TST transaction builds on FuelCell Energy's success in California, underscoring the market's demand for power sources that allow businesses to control their electricity supplies while meeting or exceeding emissions requirements. Fuel cells provide the firm, 24/7 electricity that is appropriate for base load power requirements, which is critical for many industrial customers."
Friday, July 22, 2005
sevt: news
sevt: news: "A conservative strategy Monday left SEVT in position to take the lead when rain hit Kansas Tuesday morning. The MIT team's efforts to stay below the speed limit left it an hour behind the three leaders (Michigan, Missouri-Rolla, and Minnesota), but with more charge in the batteries. Strong rains hit Kansas this morning, and MIT was able to keep up a 20 mph crawl while the other teams had to stop entirely.
Eventually MIT drove out the storm, and reached sunlight around the Topeka checkpoint at lunchtime. A sunny afternoon allowed SEVT to recharge its batteries and still maintain a fast enough speed to reach the Omaha checkpoint by the 6:30 stopping time. We are the only team here so far."
Sunday, July 17, 2005
sevt: the car
sevt: the car: "the car
Tesseract is a single-seat high performance solar race car. Because we%u2019re trying to attain highway speeds on the same power as a hairdryer, everything on the car has a necessary and specific purpose. If it isn%u2019t essential, we leave it out. All together, the car weighs about 375 lbs without driver.
How it works
Solar Array
The solar array consists of 2732 space grade triple-junction solar cells. These are the same cells that NASA puts on its satellites. We use them for the same reason they do, weight is at a premium, so we want the most power per area that we can get. The cells are connected into 40 different series strings of varying length on the car to optimize collection over the curved surface of Tesseract. Immediately after the solar array, there are 12 maximum-power-point trackers, which ensure we are drawing the max power possible from our array at any given time. These also act like a power conditioner to deal with the fluctuating battery voltage."
Digital Cameras Are Environmentally Friendly - Digital Camera Tracker
Digital Cameras Are Environmentally Friendly - Digital Camera Tracker: "Digital Cameras Are Environmentally Friendly: As the digital camera revolution swept across the last decade the focus was on how the enhanced benefits were good for consumers. More photos can be taken at much lower cost.
As Mike Adams 'the Health Ranger' writes.
But one thing many people don't think about actually deserves mention as potentially the most profound effect of the digital camera revolution: how digital cameras greatly reduce the destructive impact on the environment compared to film cameras.
At first, you might think, 'How can that be? My film camera didn't harm the environment!' Even though it wasn't your camera that harmed the environment, your film processing did indeed harm it. Any time you take your pictures to a photo processing center, that film is run through batches of chemicals. These chemicals are environmental hazards, and once they are used to process film, those chemicals must be discarded. These chemicals include both developer solutions and fixer solutions."
Technology from W&M could take heavy metal out of PVC (HamptonRoads.com/Pilot Online)
Technology from W&M could take heavy metal out of PVC (HamptonRoads.com/Pilot Online): "It's polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, a type of plastic that can be found in everyday products.
After five years in the lab, The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg has licensed a technology that could replace heavy-metal additives in PVC with environmentally friendly ones."
Monday, July 11, 2005
More colleges building environmentally friendly buildings | wkyc.com
More colleges building environmentally friendly buildings | wkyc.com: "More colleges are keeping the environment in mind when they construct new buildings.Officials say the number of universities seeking certification for projects from the U.S. Green Buildings Council is increasing.
At Case Western Reserve University, a new housing complex will feature a kiosk that displays statistics on the building%u2019s energy use. Oberlin College has four dorms with a wireless monitoring system."
The Bozeman Daily Chronicle
The Bozeman Daily Chronicle: "The Sustainability Fair is leaving the fringe and jumping into the mainstream.The annual showcase of sustainable resource technology is one of the biggest events here, bringing more than 70 vendors and exhibits, along with thousands of people interested in a more environmentally friendly and efficient world.
'We are seeing a societal shift and that is very exciting,' said Lill Erickson about the move from a small group of eco-friendly advocates to a major force in the state. Erickson is executive director of the Corporation of the Northern Rockies, the fair's organizer, and she said after six years the fair is becoming a Livingston mainstay. 'We're seeing a lot more people interested,' she said. 'It's cutting across financial and political lines.'"
Sunday, July 10, 2005
EPA Rejects Petition to Strengthen Smog Regulations
Environment News Service ENS Latest Environmental Information Education Current Issues RSS: "EPA Rejects Petition to Strengthen Smog Regulations
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has rejected a petition filed by public health and conservation groups urging the agency to restore stronger anti-smog limits in some of the nation's most polluted cities.
The groups filed the petition in response to an EPA rule adopted last year to implement the new 8-hour standard for ground level ozone, or smog.
Although the new standard is supposed to be stronger than the prior standard, EPA%u2019s rule permits states to relax important pollution limits that applied under the old standard.
In some cities, the rule could allow pollution increases of hundreds or even thousands of tons over levels previously permitted.
Earthjustice petitioned EPA to reverse this weakening provision on behalf of American Lung Association, Environmental Defense, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Clean Air Task Force, Conservation Law Foundation, and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. Last Friday EPA rejected that petition."
Saturday, July 09, 2005
Hybrid car rally at DEC
Hybrid car rally at DEC: "Environmentalists said cleaner cars can give New York a cleaner conscience. And to drive that message home, they held a hybrid car rally outside the Department of Environmental Conservation in Albany.
The groups are pushing the state to adopt new clean vehicle standards that will cut pollution from cars, trucks and SUV's.
Advocates said that will help put an end to global warming. Hybrid cars are currently on the market. And they're proof that auto companies already know how to make more environmentally-friendly cars.
Roland Hwang of the Natural Resources Defense Council said, 'There's plenty of technology, which the auto companies have, which will cut global warming pollution without effecting performance or consumer choice.'
As an added incentive, hybrid advocates said the clean technology will also cut down on gas use. And that can mean a lot at the gas pump, especially with prices as sky-high as they are now."
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Romney announces $209M in 'green' housing funds - 2005-07-07
Romney announces $209M in 'green' housing funds - 2005-07-07: "Gov. Mitt Romney announced $209 million in incentives as part of the Massachusetts Green Communities initiative to encourage more environmentally friendly, affordable housing.
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The governor joined MassHousing, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, and the Enterprise Foundation at an announcement made Thursday in East Boston. Together these organizations will provide $209 million worth of incentives to build 1,000 new, environmentally friendly homes in Massachusetts."
Venture Capitalists See Profit Potential in Environmentally Friendly Technology.
Hybrid Cars and Vehicles - MixedPower.com - Venture Capitalists See Profit Potential in Environmentally Friendly Technology.: "The color green has started to take on new meaning for Wall Street. Investing in clean technology, or cleantech%u2014products that reduce pollution and conserve energy%u2014has long been confined to investors concerned about the fate of the planet and the impact of fossil fuels on the environment. Today, cleantech has attracted new investors that realize the money-making potential of environmentally friendly technology.
The global market for clean energy, including wind, solar, and fuel cells, totaled $16.1 billion in 2004, according to estimates by market research firm Clean Edge. Still, in the United States last year, cleantech venture investment stood at a paltry 6 percent, or $1.2 billion of the total $20 billion in venture funds that went to technology companies.
But aggressive moves by big oil and energy companies, including Chevron, Shell, and General Electric%u2014an unlikely source of investment%u2014have sparked more interest. Last month, GE CEO Jeff Immelt vowed to double investment in cleantech over the next five years to $1.5 billion. Those statements get Wall Street%u2019s attention."
