What could be more synonymous with oil than Texas? And now instead of drilling they’re extracting it from algae. It’s called cellulosic ethanol and it’s not a new idea.
It looks like they’ve been doing it for at least ten years and with more research it’s become ever more viable. Apparently algae strains can be up to 50% oil and where you only get about 30 gallons per acre per year of corn, there’s a company outside El Paso that says they can produce 100,000 gallons of oil per acre per year from algae. To be fair, this is much higher than the other claims we have found which range between 5K and 20K gallons per acre per year. Maybe they have increased their efficiency that much more. If so, as the US consumes 64.97 billion gallons per year we could meet our oil needs with about 101,000 sq miles of algae, or an area roughly the size of Colorado.
We have even found a site selling a kit to grow it at home, but not sure we would go that route just yet. It can use nutrients from untreated sewage and doesn’t smell too nice. But with oil topping $100 a barrel (and projected to go higher still) ‘Swill, baby, swill’ might just be a better rallying cry for the environment.
We wanted to point out some things about being green. What we call another shade of green coming from a lot of large corporations. A lot of this stuff is obvious but for some reason people don’t think about these things.
Lets talk a little about the packaging we see in stores today in the USA. Take for example places you buy electronics. Did you ever notice the packaging? We use more plastics today than we have ever used in the past. Do you ever find yourself using scissors just to break open a package containing one USB drive. There is 10 times more plastic in the packaging than there is in the product! Green? We might as well start the Green Hall of Shame for a lot of these companies. Most of them are very well known.
The argument is that the packaging prevents theft and is essential for product marketing. Now picture 100 million of these packages in our waste lands. We talk about green but meanwhile large corporations are doing the complete opposite. The question is what is more important. The environment or corporations loosing a little money from the occasional theft?
Another thing we like to point out is product longevity. The larger the company the less quality the product. Many consumer products can sometimes last six months! Now is that really green? If you cannot get things to last then they end up in our waste lands. Today it is a challenge to find quality and for some reason Americans accept buying junk. Part of being green is product longevity.
Oh not to mention are big Corporations really 100% paperless yet? From our experience most places are still printing emails. There is still no push for real change. Don’t be fooled by all the green commercials. The lack of green education might be to blame and people are still not doing their part. Remember a lot of the things we did in the 1970s and 1980s was a lot more green. How about that washing machine that lasted for 30 years. Remember those? Is it just corporate greed and hypocrisy? Where are we really heading?
Green School in Bali, Indonesia is giving its students a relevant, holistic and green education in one of the most amazing environments on the planet. Another step in the right direction for developing countries.
Visit: www.greenschool.org
How developing countries are becoming more independent than developed countries. As developing countries begin to reduce their dependence on foreign oil the cost of living will decrease and the quality of living is beginning to increase. As the USA falls very far behind and begins to cut renewable programs and budgets the dependence on oil will only remain the same or possibly get worse.
Thailand, the ancient kingdom of Siam and legendary setting for ‘The King and I’, not a place that springs immediately to mind when you think of green technology innovation. And that’s where you’d be wrong. Initiated in 2009, The Thai Renewable Energy Development Plan aims for 20% of energy demand to be met from renewable sources by 2020 – up from around 5% now. They’ve just built a 55 Megawatt solar farm north of Bangkok – that’s the size of 500 soccer fields – set to be operational by Fall 2011. Not too shabby for a developing country!
Comparatively, in the U.S. we’re hoping to be at 10% solar by 2025. I love Thailand, it’s one of my favorite places on the planet, but is this really who we want to be trailing? Really?!?
Ok what should we blog about? We have plenty of ideas but we want to hear from the public. What is the current hot topic in renewable energy?
There are a lot of controversial ideas today when it comes to how energy audits are done and what value they really offer. Most people feel they don’t get enough value and the companies who go around auditing your home or business charge a lot of money to tell you things that you might already know.
The other problem is people feel that an audit will only lead to some kind of expensive renewable energy solution. Lets hear some comments on people who have had energy audits or are thinking about doing one. Are they worth it? What did you change after an energy audit?
How many people bought a wind turbine and found out its claimed output power is no where near the manufacturers specifications? This is a growing problem. A lot of wind turbines out of China are producing well under the manufacturers output power specifications.
Why does this hurt the consumer? Well for one it puts the product into a category that will determine its price. If manufacturers can rate them higher than the actual power they produce then you will pay more for something that is not worth the money.
This is not just a problem with wind power. How about some new energy machine or new solar electric technology. Again this stems into working with a company that has a good reputation and who will provide you with real world numbers. Our team gets very frustrated when we see manufacturers and even installers who do not provide the customer with real world data or provide false engineering data to win the contract.
Due to the growing interest in renewable energy. Scams have become more of a problem. Scams have also become more complicated and convoluted. The best thing to do is use the internet as a tool. Check out a company. Look into its past. If you can’t get anyone on the phone then this should raise suspicion.
One of the best checks is to see how long they have been in business. Scams usually only last one or two years. A renewable energy company who has been in business for more than three years is more likely a safe place to do business with. Always look into references and check with your local comptroller of accounts to see if the business has really been registered in the state.
Although sometimes even when you do all of this checking, scammers know how to make everything look legit. A good example is how they all join the BBB. People should be aware that the better business bureau is something businesses join by paying a fee. It is not something that people become a part of because they are a good company. Its unfortunate but the BBB has become a for profit business in itself.
This is just a blog test posting.
Some discussion here about grid tied solar electric systems. The Oncor program looks to be coming to an abrupt end. The possibility of a final round is pretty slim. There are still several other programs for grid tied solar that many can still take advantage of. Stay tuned for more program status blogging.
