MakeHeat

If humans are able to utilize the energy from the sun that is stored in plants and animals as chemical and biological energy, it could be yet another source of renewable energy. See http://jrse.aip.org/potatoes_eco-friendly_batteries

photo: trasroid/Creative Commons

The old spectre of indirect land-use change and biofuels again rears its head: A new report from the Institute for European Environmental Policy looks at the increase in greenhouse gas emissions that could result from plans to expand biofuel use within the European Union and concludes that not only will a whole bunch more land will have…Read the full story on TreeHugger

Officials with the Department of Environmental Protection were on hand today at celebrations marking three different clean energy projects – including the largest rooftop solar array in North America — to deliver the message that renewable energy sources and technologies that are more efficient represent the economic future of Pennsylvania and America.

DEP Secretary John Hanger this morning visited Frey Farm Landfill in Conestoga, Lancaster County, to cut the ribbon on a new, 3.2-megawatt wind power project by the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority.

Later in the day, the secretary was on hand as local officials and citizens from Yardley, Bucks County, marked the completion of a broad, energy efficient lighting system upgrade that will save Lower Makefield Township taxpayers ,000 annually. Both projects benefited from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding because each met the bill’s objective of creating jobs and helping consumers and businesses save money by using green energy solutions.

Separately, in East Manchester Township, York County, Deputy Secretary for Energy and Technology Deployment Andrew Place watched today as GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare began installing solar panels on its northeast regional distribution center. Once completed, the 3-megawatt array will represent the largest rooftop system in North America, allowing the company to generate approximately 90 percent of its electricity needs.

“Today is a monumental day in Pennsylvania’s ongoing transformation to a clean, green future, and it’s also a great day for our economy because it represents what we can accomplish in terms of creating jobs and reducing our dependence on foreign oil and other polluting fossil-fuels,” said Hanger. “Pennsylvania has more than 350,000 people working in ‘green’ jobs and hundreds — if not thousands — of companies in this industry today as a result of our investments and policies that are leveling the playing field for renewables. Those investments are paying dividends today and will continue to do so for decades to come.”

Since 2003, Pennsylvania has invested more than billion in renewable energy projects that have made it among the leading states for this industry. Pennsylvania has been recognized as one of the fastest growing states for wind energy and is expected to be among the top five for solar energy by the end of the year.

“The future of our state — and our nation — is in clean energy,” said Hanger. “The projects we visited today are proof of that. More families and businesses are realizing that clean energy is not only better for the environment and our health because these technologies don’t emit harmful pollutants, it’s better for our pocket books and bottom lines. By conserving energy, you reduce your monthly utility bill; by installing a generation source of renewable energy, you’re ensuring that you’ll pay a constant price for the energy that system generates for the next 20-30 years: nothing.”

Hanger said the .7 million Frey Farm landfill project, which will provide 25 percent of the power to the neighboring Turkey Hill Dairy, created 26 construction jobs and will produce enough clean energy to offset the pollution that would have been created by burning 12,000 barrels of oil to generate the same amount of electricity. The commonwealth invested .5 million in the project through the Recovery Act-funded state energy program.

In Lower Makefield Township, the secretary witnessed how a 0,000 Conservation Works! grant — funded by the Recovery Act — helped replace 23 incandescent traffic lights and all of the free-standing parking lot light poles with new high-efficiency light emitting diode models. The changeover to LED is expected to reduce the lighting costs for traffic lights and parking lot lighting by 91 percent and 70 percent, respectively.

Finally, the GlaxoSmithKline project involves 100 workers adding about 11,000 solar panels over an area the size of approximately seven football fields. The solar panels will generate enough electricity to meet the annual energy needs of the nearly 500,000-square-foot building, which is equivalent to the amount of power 400 average-sized homes use in a year. The project benefited from a million solar energy program grant from the Commonwealth Financing Authority. The program was made possible by the state’s 0 million Alternative Energy Investment Fund, which Governor Edward G. Rendell signed into law in 2008.

For more information on Pennsylvania’s clean energy development program and work to help consumers and businesses conserve energy, visit www.depweb.state.pa.us.

Michael Davis is a true DIY’er.  He’s built everything from solar panels to wind turbines, and this is a remarkably ambitious project that’s still a work in progress, though it does work. Good words of warning here – be well aware of the following before attempting this project: “… A word of warning here. This project is dangerous. Metal working and welding are involved in the construction, so all the usual dangers of laceration, burns and electrocution that go along with them are present. Use all necessary precautions. Also, the operation of a biomass gasifier produces lots of heat, flammable and poisonous gasses. Never operate the gasifier indoors. The gasses produced are flammable and potentially explosive if allowed to accumulate in an enclosed space, like a building. Also, the Carbon Monoxide the gasifier produces is lethal! Only operate the gasifier outdoors and try to stay up wind of the unit when it is running. Treat the gas coming out of the gasifier with the same respect as you would for the natural gas that you may have piped into your house. It is just as potentially explosive and deadly. …”

via My Home-Made Biomass Gasifier.

Great hopes for this technology, here’s to hoping that it comes to fruition and not a research piece that gets shelved.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6228923n&tag=api

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/maggieshiels/2010/02/valley_buzz_energy_nirvana_twe.html

The food-scrap project “hasn’t been a cakewalk,” Williams says.

Waste haulers, who pay the utility district to take the waste, collect the food scraps from restaurants and hotels as part of their normal garbage pickups.

Some of the haulers weed out big items, such as cardboard boxes used for produce. Other haulers have restaurants and grocers do more of the separation so that the waste is cleaner.

Upon arrival via truck at the plant, the food scraps look like mounds of wet dirt. They’re dumped into 20,000-gallon underground tanks. There, grinders turn the scraps into a mud-like substance. Bigger items, such as rocks and utensils, fall out.

via San Francisco area utility turns food waste into green energy – USATODAY.com.

It does turn out though, that renewable energy funding is amply available for the farm and dairy industry!  Solar milking machines anyone?   “…For example, Schmack Biomass-OARDC, LLC received a $1.3 million rural development loan/grant combination which they will use to install an anaerobic digester.

“The digester will process organic biomass to generate more than 3 million kWh of electricity per year.

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture also selected Ridge View Farms in Seneca County, Ohio, to receive a $42,750 grant to replace an inefficient grain dryer with a more efficient unit.

“The new dryer will reduce the farm’s energy consumption by more than 32 percent. …”

Millions available for renewable energy and energy efficiency loans, grants | Farm and Dairy – The Auction Guide and Rural Marketplace.

Watermelon juice can be a valuable source of biofuel. Researchers writing in BioMed Central’s open access journal Biotechnology for Biofuels have shown that the juice of reject watermelons can be efficiently fermented into ethanol.

via Reject Watermelons — The Newest Renewable Energy Source.

Okay, so a typical stirling engine of this size won’t move you too fast, but if you can pick up some trash from the roadside and put it in the combustion chamber?  How about some of the wood chips they’re leaving along the roadside (wait I already use those – forget the last sentence!)?

If Dean Kamen can dream it and bring it into the real world, it just might make our roads cleaner and get us to where we’re going.  Hmm: wonder how far I could ride on a dollar meal – packaging included?

Hybrid Electric Scooter Runs On Anything That Burns : Gas 2.0.

I'm going to eat on the lower east side.

Not ready for prime time, or even prime locations – yet.  Four architects were asked to draw up plans for the house of the future without regard to cost, but the end result had to be attainable (no “entropy-vortex-reverse-plasma-rediculum-bizbah er, engine that runs everything, kinda”)  The results?  A “Tree House”, a “Reptile House”, and “Edible House”, and more.

The Green House of the Future – WSJ.com.