Greening with Graphene: Using The Wonder Material in Green Technology. Graphene is the thinnest and strongest material known to man. The pure carbon substance is 100 times stronger than steel and thin enough that an ounce could cover twenty-eight football fields. It’s also transparent, electrically conductive, flexible and cheap to produce – all properties that could allow it to revolutionize a number of industries, including green technology. The first graphene was produced in 2004 when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov used sticky tape and graphite (better known as pencil lead) to separate the layers of carbon and isolate the one-atom-thick material graphene.
Six years later, the scientists won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work with the substance. Today, the field of materials science is awash in research dedicated to finding uses for graphene, which has been touted as “the wonder material of the 21st century.” Flexible solar panels As Geim and Novoselov noted in their seminal 2007 paper (pdf): “The graphene ‘gold rush’ has begun.” Sustainability’s Bottom Line. Ron Vokoun is Mission Critical Market Leader, Western Region, at JE Dunn Construction.
Ron was previously Director of Mission Critical for Gray Construction and also served in leadership roles with Qwest Communications and Aerie Networks. You can find him on Twitter at @RonVokoun. RON VOKOUN JE Dunn Implementing sustainable measures in your data center can be a complex and cost-prohibitive task, but there are many incentives available to offset the cost and improve your Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). In previous columns, I discussed the implementation of renewable energy and energy efficient measures, as well as the pros and cons of LEED Certification and Energy Star for Data Centers.
I will address the incentives that are available for greening your data center, as well as other incentives that, as a whole, will lower the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of your data center. Renewable Energy Incentives Energy Efficiency Incentives Other Legislated Incentives Local Spot Incentives Branding. GSA Tests Energy-Slashing Technologies To Deploy In 10,000 Federal Buildings. INFOGRAPHIC: Graphite, the Key Ingredient Behind Green Energy | Green Technology and Green Gadgets. The Driving Force Behind Green Technology What we consumer around the globe in terms of natural graphite has literally exploded over the last decade, climbing from almost 600,000 tonnes (2000) to nearly 1.1 million tonnes by 2011.
With demand steadily on the increase at roughly 5% per year, researchers find the emerging power house economies mostly at the root of this phenomenon (China, India, etc.). And with the technology revolution in full swing, and more and more countries adopting new tech and mobile phone use, for example, graphite’s use in new applications such as fuel cells, solar power, nuclear power and lithium-ion batteries, it looks as if there will be little abatement in the demand. With electric vehicles on the rise concurrently (in developed nations), the lithium battery technology will simultaneously increase in demand, and more graphite will be needed. Infographic on Graphite: The Driving Force Behind Green Technology Related posts: The 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid. India's mobile phone firms turn to green power. 23 August 2012Last updated at 06:51 GMT By Shilpa Kannan BBC News, Delhi Thanks to India's erratic power supplies, over 60% of telecom masts currently rely on diesel generators, says the BBC's Shilpa Kannan Nearly a billion people use mobile phones in India and a network of broadcast masts helps to keep them talking.
But keeping these towers working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, consumes a lot of energy. Towers that are located in urban areas are usually connected to the main grid to get electricity. But most locations in India do not get a continuous or even good quality grid supply, and more than 60% of the towers depend on diesel-powered generators. Each mast requires about the same amount of energy as the average urban household. But with 400,000 across the country - and many more planned - the total is huge, and it is perhaps no surprise that India is asking if they can switch to cleaner energy.
Going hybrid But experts warn that it will not be easy. Big savings Cut-throat competition. Locals aren't buying Palo Alto's newest green-energy program. Palo Alto may be land of the green and home of the tech-savvy, but the city's latest renewable-energy program has so far failed to achieve even a spark of participation from local customers, forcing officials to go back to the drawing board. The program, dubbed Palo Alto CLEAN (Clean Local Energy Accessible Now), gives local companies with large rooftops a chance to sell energy generated by solar systems to the city's Utilities Department. In launching the program in March, the city hoped to get about 4 megawatts of solar energy from local rooftops through this program, enough to power roughly 1,250 homes.
At its March 5 meeting, the City Council swiftly and enthusiastically approved the new program, with Councilman Pat Burt calling it a "fulfillment of what is overwhelmingly a desire in our community to have very clean and competitive electricity" and "an excellent example" for other utilities to emulate. But things haven't quite panned out as planned.