Andrew Dall
Born in raised in Portland, OR. I'm Marketing/IT Coordinator for MeetGreen. We are meeting planners who make large events more sustainable and less expensive.
Germany sets weekend record for solar power. (Phys.org) -- Solar power plants in Germany have set a new record.
“Never before anywhere has a country produced as much photovoltaic electricity," said Norbert Allnoch, Germany’s director of the Institute of the Renewable Energy Industry in Muenster. The plants peaked at 22 gigawatts of output for a few hours over the weekend, on Friday and Saturday. The numbers are important in that they yielded almost half the country's energy mid-day electricity needs. The 22 gigawatts is up from 14 GW a year ago. Also, this 22 gigawatts of output is equal to about 20 nuclear plants. That comparison is significant because, in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, Germany abandoned nuclear energy endeavors.
Germany aggressively supports alternative energy sources and, by the year 2022, Germany expects to shutter its remaining nine nuclear power plants.
Pulpop Recycled Pulp Speaker The Greenest Of Them All? Huge Biomimetic 'Supertrees' Taking Root on Singapore's Waterfront (Video) Jackerbie/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Vertical gardens are one effective way to enliven and maximize growing potential in cities, and we've seen them range in size from small, improvised projects to larger, official ones.
As part of Singapore's masterplan to develop its Marina Bay area, these towering eighteen 'Supertrees' take vertical greenery a step further, integrating over 226,000 plants consisting of over 200 species with a host of other functions, like solar power generation, rainwater collection and acting as ventilation towers for the horticultural conservatories below. Get A Workout While You're Working With The We-Bike.
Webike via Gizmag/Promo image.
Vertical Farm Proposal Is Woven Into The Fabric Of The City. © Michelle Cheng We have shown a lot of vertical farms that are in the city, but they are rarely part of the city.
They are usually freestanding, independent and designed for drama, from butterflies to spheres. But successful buildings in real cities are part of a fabric, usually full of mixed uses. Amsterdam RAI Convention Centre Goes Greener. © Amsterdam RAI Convention centers are huge consumers of energy, sell huge amounts of takeout food and disposable cups, and generate a huge amount of waste.
Much of it is out of anyone's control; a convention centre can't tell a visitor or an exhibitor what to do. But the Amsterdam RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre certainly appears to be trying; they are planning to add an urban greenhouse designed by Benthem Crouwel. Having been in the terrible food courts of quite a few North American food courts, I find their restaurant appealing.
Greenpeace Pranks Apple at Flagship Stores, Calls for an End to the Coal-Powered Cloud. Brian Merchant/CC BY 3.0 Greenpeace activists loosed black balloons inside two of the nation's flagship Apple stores today, protesting the company's reliance on coal to power the cloud.
In New York City, San Francisco, and at another demonstration in Toronto, protesters drew attention to the fact that companies like Apple use electricity generated by coal plants to run their data centers—which power the cloud that is now sucking down a ballooning slice of the world's energy pie. As far as Greenpeace actions go, this one was pretty tame—I'd been tipped off by organizers, so I was already inside the Fifth Avenue Apple store when a small parade of activists barged through the front doors and released dozens of black balloons. Emblazoned with illustrations of coal pollution and slogans like 'Clean Our Cloud', they collected on the roof of the glass building, above the giant iconic Apple insignia. Black Solar Cell Absorbs 99.7% of All Light. © Natcore Technology Scientists over at Natcore Tech have created what is now the "blackest" solar cell to date.
While that might sound as trivial as creating a white iPhone, this is a fairly huge advancement in the world of solar technology. With an average reflectance of 0.3%, these black silicon wafers absorb more light than any other out there, which means more of the sun's energy is actually converted into energy. Solar-Power iPad Case From Logitec Hits Best Buy Website. Best Buy/via Mashable caught wind of a listing on Best Buy for a solar-powered iPad cover for $129, which features not only solar cells but a built-in keyboard.
It says "coming soon" so we aren't sure exactly when you might be able to pick one of these up, but it's up on the site to add to your wishlist. Is it worth the environmental footprint? Cool DIY Hydropower Kits for Kids. © Science Kit and Boreal Laboratories.
Top 10 Tech Stories This Week: DIY solar lawn mower, Pinterest and the cloud, hydropower for kids and more! Giant Solar Lily Pads Take Advantage of Unused Waterways for Energy. EnergySaver Mobile App Analyzes Energy and Water Use, Helps You Save Money. © EnergySaver Some of us in the green community want to use less energy and water just because we feel it's the best thing to do for the planet, and some of us want to use less because it also leads to saving money.
No matter what your motivation, it's pretty clear that the desire is there, but sometimes the tools to do so aren't very obvious. However, a new mobile app will help you not only track your energy and water use, but will also analyze it and help you make changes to reduce your consumption, lower your carbon footprint, and keep more of your hard-earned dollars in your wallet. "EnergySaver allows you to analyze your current and estimate your future energy consumption instead of just analyzing or tracking past energy consumption. EnergySaver also enables you to customize and analyze each appliance's energy consumption instead of just the overall consumption. The EnergySaver app is compatible with the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Android platforms.
5 Star Wars-Inspired Green(ish) Gadgets. Image via TGNSmith on Etsy "May The Fourth Be With You" on Star Wars day today. To honor this geek holiday, we've rounded up our favorite Star Wars-themed posts. Creative craftster Sage Werbock has come up with a clever idea for recycling old computer parts and providing Star Wars fans something to lust over. The Future of Wind Power: 9 Cool Innovations. TreeHugger/Screen capture Our economy has an insatiable appetite for energy, and because of the negative side effects of fossil fuels, the quicker that we can supplement and/or replace petroleum-based power sources, the better.
Wind power is a great way to generate clean renewable energy, and the innovations in wind technology being pursued over the last year or so are a reminder that with the right tools, we can turn the movement of the air above us into fuel for our energy-hungry lifestyles. 1. Airborne Wind Turbines: Solar is getting cheaper, but how far can it go? 10 eco friendly toilets designed to conserve resources. 10 eco friendly toilets designed to conserve resources Uncontrolled environment degradation has polluted our environment and left us with scarce resources. TgtbX.jpg (JPEG Image, 500 × 376 pixels) Can an African 'green revolution' feed the world? This story is part of AlertNet's special report Solutions for a hungry world. We need to talk about Lucas Heights – Opinion – ABC Environment. Thrift Store Summer Clothing Buys. Federal Support For Solar Is Relatively Small, But Provides 'More Jobs Per Megawatt-Hour Than Any Other Energy Industry'
By Climate Guest Contributor on May 2, 2012 at 4:35 pm "Federal Support For Solar Is Relatively Small, But Provides ‘More Jobs Per Megawatt-Hour Than Any Other Energy Industry’" by Adam James The myth is that solar energy has achieved little despite huge subsidies. The reality is that solar has achieved a great deal despite relatively low subsidies. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. - Cool Like Pie. Upcycled TV Transformed Into A Digital Picture Show Artist Jonas Merian modified an old Chinese TV by replacing the old screen with a digital picture frame.Simply load up all your favorite photos and you can watch them on the TV.This might be the coolest TV modification I've see so far.Visit his website to see his other awesome upcycled projects. Birth of the world’s national parks : National Parks, USA.
Independent Analysis Confirms That Hydraulic Fracturing Caused Drinking Water Contamination In Wyoming. RethINK on the Behance Network. Are eReaders Really Green? 1. In 2009, the Book Industry Environmental Council set a couple of environmental goals for the U.S. book industry. Using a calculation of the industry’s total greenhouse gas emissions from 2006 as its baseline, the BIEC and its members pledged to reduce the industry’s carbon footprint by 20% in 2020 and by 80% in 2050.