California Solar Website Launched to Help CA Homeowners Save Money and Go Solar. Clean Power Published on July 27th, 2011 | by Reggie Norris One of the nation’s largest solar lead generation companies, Clean Energy Experts, just announced that it has launched a new website, Solar-California.org to help CA homeowners save money by investing in solar. According to the company press release, the goal of the site is to “present facts about solar power, how to prepare for a solar installation, available financing and leasing programs, current solar tax rebates and incentives in California, and estimates on the costs of a system.” The idea for a state specific solar site originated from the fact that the California solar market has become the hottest and most well-developed in the U.S. This is mostly due to large subsidization from the state in the form of rebates as well as an aggressive renewable energy portfolio. But, according to the President of Clean Energy Experts, Dr.
For more information, visit Solar-California.org. Image via mayorgavinnewsom About the Author. MIT Students Develop Liquid Fuel for Electric Cars – Gas 2.0. One (of many) complaints against electric cars is that they take too long to “fill up” with electrons. But a group of MIT students have developed a semi-solid electron-laden “fuel” that could completely change how we power EV’s. Forgoing the traditional route of storing electrons in either nickel or lithium-ion, the MIT students have figured out a way to store electricity in semi-solid flow cells. Called “Cambridge Crude,” the charged particles are stored in an electrolyte gel that can be removed and refilled when drained, not unlike how we currently fill our cars with gasoline. The gel would move between a charging area, and dispensing area, sending electrons straight to the drivetrain. Perhaps even more importantly though, this technology can (supposedly) store 10x more electricity, at half the price of current conventional battery technology.
Talk about a game changer. Does this electrolyte-laden gel have what it takes to go mainstream? Source: The Atlantic Wire | Image: Nicole Werner. Sweden Unveils “Arctic Whisper” Hybrid Bus – Gas 2.0. Trust a Scandinavian country to be well ahead of the curve on green energy. Having lived in Vaxjo, Sweden (which is quite possibly the greenest city in Europe) for nearly six months, I can tell you that the Swedes take this green energy stuff quite seriously.
So it should come as no surprise that the northern city of Umea, Sweden has debuted a hybrid bus called the “Arctic Whisper.” This bad boy features an overhead charging station by Opbrid which (according to the company) will allow the bus to travel up to 18 hours without support from its diesel engine, with only minor five-minute pit stops in between routes to recharge. The best part about this nifty system: one Opbrid Busbaar charging station can recharge any number of these green buses for a fraction of the cost of filling the behemoth with diesel—between 1-2 Euros worth of electricity can take the bus 10 kilometers, compared to 7-8 Euros for the diesel engine to move it the same distance. This is cutting-edge technology, folks. Galvin Programs Bacteria; Gets Rid of Herbicides – CleanTechnica: Cleantech innovation news and views. James Gallivan presents at PopTech.
Photo: Kris Krüg The movie title might be rewritten as “The Ugly, The Bad, & the Good.” Justin Gallivan, associate professor of biomolecular chemistry at Emory University, is busy developing new ways to reprogram bacteria to carry out some remarkable new tasks – instructing the E. Coli bacteria, for instance, to eat atrazine, a widely used herbicide that can cause considerable contamination of ground water. Galvin, a 2010 Science and Public Leadership Fellow, reports at a PopTech presentation, that he finds himself “amazed by bacteria. According to Galvin, the key is to be able to turn the gene on and off, a task that be accomplished using a molecule called Riboswitch. Galvin has written considerably about riboswitches – here in an RNA Society article, “The ability to encode riboswitches within translated regions as well as untranslated regions provides additional opportunities for creating new genetic control elements.”
The result at Emory? Five Things to Do with Your Old Laptop. New Bio-Based Adhesive Eliminates Toxic Petrochemicals : CleanTechnica. A newly discovered bio-based adhesive could help speed up the long, slow fade of petrochemicals. Currently, a wide variety of pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes get their stickiness from petroleum-based polymers (large molecules composed of strings of repeating units). Now an almost accidental discovery by researchers at Oregon State University raises the potential for replacing the fossil-derived substance with soy oil and other renewable oils.
[social_buttons] “Green chemistry” – the replacement of toxic substances with safer alternatives - is a rapidly growing trend, helped along by U.S. military’s growing interest in sustainability. Greener Adhesives The Oregon State breakthrough came about when researchers were trying to develop a sustainable adhesive that could be used in a hot-melt application to create a wood-based composite product.
Earth to Fossil Fuels: Buh-Bye Image: Glue by Kulmalukko on wikimediacommons.org. About the Author. NCER. NCER is not a provider of electronics recycling services, although we have held collection events in our home state of West Virginia. Please see the search engines listed below to find an electronics recycler in your area. Important Considerations: Reuse is Preferable, but Don’t Dump Your Junk! The NCER encourages reuse of working, newer equipment as the first option for used electronic equipment, and has listed several non-profit and other reuse programs below.