Tuesday, December 22, 2009

interesting

Bacteria used to power simple machines
ARGONNE, Ill. (UPI) -- U.S. Department of Energy scientists say they've used common bacteria to power simple machines, providing insight for creating bio-inspired energy production.

The researchers at the Argonne National Laboratory and Northwestern University said they discovered bacteria can turn microgears when suspended in a solution.

"The gears are a million times more massive than the bacteria," said physicist Igor Aronson, who led the study. "The ability to harness and control the power of bacterial motions is an important requirement for further development of hybrid biomechanical systems driven by microorganisms."

The scientists discovered the aerobic bacteria, Bacillus subtilis, appear to swim around the solution randomly, but occasionally the organisms will collide with the spokes of the gear and begin turning it in a definite direction. The researchers then added a few hundred bacteria which worked together to turn the gear.

When multiple gears are placed in the solution with the spokes connected, the bacteria will begin turning both gears in opposite directions and it will cause the gears to rotate in synchrony for a long time, the scientists said.

"Our discovery demonstrates how microscopic swimming agents, such as bacteria or man-made nanorobots, in combination with hard materials can constitute a 'smart material' which can dynamically alter its microstructures, repair damage or power microdevices," Aronson said.

The research is reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


Copyright 2009 by United Press International

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Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Merry CHRISTmas

Have a great holiday by giving of yourself in the spirit of Christ. Help others in need and you will gain true and needed satisfaction.

The rank commercialism -where 40% of total sales are made in one month -loses the original meaning of Christmas . Give of yourself not things please and get back to the original family tradition of good charity and cheer.

in reference to: Blogger: Blogs I'm following (view on Google Sidewiki)

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

new approach?

HIV vaccine research takes new direction
DURHAM, N.C. (UPI) -- U.S. scientists seeking a vaccine for the human immunodeficiency virus say a study of HIV antibodies is leading them in a new direction.

The Duke University Medical Center-led researchers said that new direction came from a detailed study of how the most robust antibodies work to block the HIV as it seeks entry into healthy cells.

"Our study clearly showed that we've been overlooking a very important component of antibody function," said S. Munir Alam, associate professor of medicine and lead author of the study.

Alam and Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor Bing Chen said they studied two potentially powerful antibodies against HIV, 2F5 and 4E10. Both of are rare, broadly neutralizing antibodies, meaning they can block a number of strains of HIV, the scientists said.

The researchers found successful docking of the antibody to the HIV outer coat membrane region required antibody attachment to the virus's membrane, which contains lipid.

"This two-step mechanism, not previously appreciated, might extend to antibodies that protect against other viruses," said study co-author Stephen Harrison of Harvard Medical School.

The researchers said they are now designing a vaccine that incorporates a lipid component and design trials are now being conducted on animals.

The findings are detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

--
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Monday, November 16, 2009

Stop fanatic political agendas and correctness actions



--
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Back to Eden communities
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Saturday, October 24, 2009

Global warming

r"The Global Warming Consensus Has Been Shattered
John CarneyOct. 22, 2009, 3:26 PM 3,432 41
PrintTags: Regulation, Global Warming, Carbon, Cap And Trade
Just a few years ago, Americans reached a consensus that the earth had warmed over the past few decades. These days, however, far fewer Americans believe in global"

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Beware of extreme saving claims

Canada's biggest alternative-power generator, Canadian Hydro Developers, generates 496 megawatts of wind and hydropower... theoretically. If its claims were true, it could power almost 400 average U.S. homes for a year.

In fact, this $720 million company's power supply is terribly inefficient. In the first quarter, the company only operated about 27% of the time from January to March. That means its true generating capacity was just 133 megawatts.

When we break down Canadian Hydro Developers' sales, we see that it earns about $82 per megawatt hour (which is one megawatt of energy supplied for one hour). That works out to about $720,000 per megawatt of capacity (hours per year multiplied by $82 per megawatt hour).

The company claims it will install another 185 megawatts of power this year. However, by its own estimates, those power plants will only produce about the equivalent of 66 megawatts of power. In other words, those new plants' planned efficiency is 37%... and will probably be much lower.

That puts the company's total paid power generation for this year at just under 200 megawatts. The company spends, on average, $8.5 million to build one paid megawatt of wind power and $4.8 million to build one paid megawatt of hydropower.

At $720,000 per megawatt of paid power generation, new hydropower plants will take almost seven years to pay for themselves. New wind plants will take almost 12 years to pay for themselves.

As you can see, the company must spend far more money than it will recoup in the near term. Canadian Hydro Developers' long-term debt soared 275% in three years... from $224 million in 2005 to $839 million today. That's about 10 times its estimated earnings for 2010, which is too high for my taste.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

GM Volt

Despite GM's struggles to bring the Volt to market, there's no doubt that technology is changing the automotive industry forever and that mpg will soon be a wholly inadequate metric on which to judge the efficiency of a car. You can expect GM's inflated claims to be reduced when the Volt finally hits showroom floors in a few years. But you can also expect shockwaves to run through the industry and the economy as virtually every component of the car, shy of the seats, is rethought over the next decade. Fortunes will be made and lost in a way that has not been seen in the automotive industry in half a century or more

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Global warming is the new religion of First World urban elites

Global warming is the new religion of First World urban elites: "There is no problem with global warming, Plimer says repeatedly. He points out that for humans periods of global warming have been times of abundance when civilization made leaps forward. Ice ages, in contrast, have been times when human development slowed or even declined.
So global warming, says Plimer, is something humans should welcome and embrace as a harbinger of good times to come."

More voices of reason combat the new golbal warming fanaticism How warm has your summer been? SHT

Thursday, July 02, 2009

The Government Is About to Pull $3,000 Out of Your Pocket


The Government Is About to Pull $3,000 Out of Your Pocket
By Matt Badiali

On Friday, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, by a vote of 33 to 25.

According to the bill's sponsors, it is "a comprehensive approach to America's energy policy that will create millions of new clean energy jobs, save consumers hundreds of billions of dollars in energy costs, enhance America's energy independence, and cut global warming pollution."

If you believe that, I hear Bernie Madoff is starting a new fund.

The bill will actually levy financial penalties against companies that produce carbon dioxide and other gases. Carbon dioxide is a byproduct of burning stuff – leaves, coal, gasoline, etc.

Coal and natural gas are the two cheapest sources of power at 1¢ per kilowatt hour and 1.4¢ per kilowatt hour, respectively.

Wind power is seven times more expensive than coal; solar is 35 times more expensive. You might as well try to generate the nation's electricity with a bunch of little Honda generators.

The law would require greenhouse gas emissions cut to 97% of 2005 levels, approximately 6.98 billion tons, in 2012. We produced 7.28 billion tons in 2007, the latest data available. It's a miniscule change, and it won't help the climate in the least.

By 2050, the figure jumps to an insane 17% of 2005 levels. There's no way that will work... In 2007, burning oil contributed 2.6 billion tons of carbon (35%). Burning coal contributed 2.2 billion tons (30%). And burning natural gas contributed 1.2 billion tons (17%). Those three sources contributed 70% of our electricity and all of our transport fuel. Where the hell are we going to come up with a replacement... even in 40 years?

Let's be clear: This 1,200-page bill isn't about saving the environment over the next few decades. This bill is about dollars – yours and mine – right now.

As soon as it's enacted, it will increase our electric bills by 32%. The costs will climb to an extra 62% within the first 18 to 24 months. Here's why:

Coal power plants that produce more carbon dioxide than they're allowed will have to buy the right to produce more. That additional cost will be passed on to consumers. According to the Congressional Budget Office, we'll pay about $846 billion to the federal government from 2010 to 2019.

That's not the only cost we're going to shoulder. Any energy-intensive business is going to get clobbered by this bill. In 2012, when the rules go into affect, oil refiners will be forced to add $0.77 per gallon of gasoline, $0.83 per gallon of jet fuel, and $0.88 per gallon of diesel fuel, according to the American Petroleum Institute.

Companies buying that fuel are going to pass that cost directly along to you and me. We'll remember 2012 as the year of $6 gasoline. Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil, thinks it will actually increase imports of finished fuels, because foreign refined products will be cheaper.

U.S.-based steelmakers will also get crushed. Foreign steelmakers won't have to worry about the onerous energy taxes, and steel imports will remain cheap. So, unlike refiners, U.S. steelmakers won't be able to pass along energy costs. That will be the story for other U.S. metal industries like zinc, aluminum, silver, and gold.

But the worst-hit industry will be coal. Portrayed as the villain in the war on climate change, many coal companies (particularly on the East Coast) will go out of business.

According to analysis by the Heritage Foundation (a conservative think-tank), the combined cost of the bill would be $3,000 per family in 2012 and $20,000 per household by 2035. If you make $50,000, you're looking at an after-tax 7% paycut as soon as the legislation hits.

How can a family be expected to carry a $20,000-per-year burden, no matter how far in the future it's placed? When you add all the costs up, direct and indirect, it spells a major decline in our standard of living.

We have one more chance to stop this legislation, when the Senate takes up the bill. The problem is, few Democrats bucked the party in the House. On a party-line vote, this passes the Senate, too. Then we're in real trouble.

Good investing,

"good intentions that we will pay for

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Canada has a great energy future

Canadian Oil Sands: More Oil Than Saudi Arabia?

Canada's oil sands hold an estimated 170 billion barrels of oil that can be recovered with existing technology and as much as 1.7 trillion barrels -- more than five times the size of Saudi Arabia's reserves -- that could be produced with the use of new methods that are being developed.

As the only non-OPEC source with the capability for large production growth during the next several years, oil sands have the potential to reduce the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' revenues, weakening the cartel and those members that often undertake policies hostile to U.S. interests.

By getting more of their oil from Canada, refineries in the Midwest are moving from being at the back of the crude oil supply line to the front. With these secure supplies, Midwest refineries are not as vulnerable to supply disruptions from overseas producers or hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico.

So who would object to Canadian oil sands?

Eenvironmental groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club are trying to shut down Canadian oil sands production and block the expansion of refineries here in the U.S.

If the environmental groups truly cared about achieving results in their battle against global warming, they would better focus their energy on the construction of scores of power plants in rapidly developing economies like China and India that account for most of the increase in the world's carbon emissions. These developments pose the real global environmental danger, not the Canadian oil sands.

~From my editorial in today's Detroit News
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2009/06/canadian-oil-sands-more-oil-than-saudi.html

Should Government be in the green business?

Suzuki unwelcome in our homes
Posted By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN
Posted 2 hours ago


So far, not many people have seen Canadian environmentalist Tom Adams' clever YouTube videoHome Invasion David Suzuki Style.I'm hoping that together, we're going to change that.

An independent energy and environmental consultant, Adams was for 11 years, until 2007, the highly-respected executive director of Energy Probe, a sister organization of Pollution Probe.

Adams believes so-called "green" energy decisions by governments are best made by paying attention to such old-fashioned ideas as democracy, due process and paying for the real costs of electricity.

This as opposed to turning the energy market into a giant casino where governments arbitrarily decide winners and losers among energy producers and consumers by cabinet decree, after consulting with favoured environmental groups who then gush support for the government's "green" initiatives.

All this while treating taxpayers like mushrooms -- covering them with manure and keeping them in the dark.

Which pretty much describes the approach of the Ontario government under Premier Dalton McGuinty, sadly illustrative of governments in general.

If you go to youtube.comand type inHome

Invasion, David Suzuki Stylein the search engine, up will pop the mild-mannered Adams, warning about the potential abuse of state power when it comes to all things "green."

For months, Ontarians have been subjected to patronizing, tiresome television commercials -- paid for with their taxes -- featuring Suzuki lecturing clueless citizens (apparently the government's view) on conservation.

Suzuki has been shown doing everything from conspiring with children in a tree house on how to correct the energy-wasting habits of their parents, to showing up in the basement of some guy with the mental acuity of Homer Simpson, delighted to learn how much more beer he can buy with the energy savings from getting rid of his old beer fridge.

Adams zeroes in one ad called Habitat -- see it at powerwise.ca/features/videos-- in which Suzuki sneaks into someone's home and caulks the windows -- dripping the stuff on the floor -- while describing the sleeping homeowner as an energy-wasting species known as the "draft dodger." Awakened by Suzuki, the groggy homeowner emerges from his bedroom and the two stare vacantly at each other, before Suzuki takes off, stopping briefly on the guy's lawn to deliver more advice.

Adams points out the problem with this ad -- apparently the government's idea of humour -- is that the joke is on us.

That's because in the original version of McGuinty's Green Energy Act -- applauded by the Suzuki Foundation and other environmental groups as "world class" -- Suzuki, or anyone designated by a government bureaucrat, could, in fact, under the "Inspection, Enforcement and Penalties" section of the law, conduct surprise search and seizure raids on anyone's home or business.

This to check out activities deemed suspicious by the government related to energy or water use.

In the case of a house raid, the government, uh, generously stipulated a search warrant would have to be obtained, presumably before grilling homeowners at midnight about their electricity and water bills.

Adams says the Suzuki Foundation and other environmental groups didn't raise a peep of protest about these draconian, privacy-violating measures, while praising the act.

Yesterday, a spokesperson for the foundation told me it didn't focus on this aspect of the law because it knew early on McGuinty wasn't going to go through with these "Big Brother" provisions.

OK. Two questions for McGuinty.

What efforts did his government make to inform ordinary citizens it was planning these draconian measures and how many knew as fast as the Suzuki Foundation it was dropping them?

Adams concludes the good news is McGuinty was ultimately embarrassed into dropping the search and seizure provisions, but the bad news is what he left in the law is worse,

How bad? Type "Green Energy Act Paradox" into youtube's search engine. He'll tell you.Article ID# 1628502 http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1628502

Interesting food for thought particularly after the e-health fiasoe SHT

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

FCPP Publications :: Cheer Up, Canada's Environmental Record is Improving

FCPP Publications :: Cheer Up, Canada's Environmental Record is Improving: "In light of these trends, Earth Day should not be an occasion for hand-wringing and lamentation. It should instead be viewed as an opportunity to celebrate the tremendous progress we have made towards greater environmental sustainability. There is always room for further improvement, and we should strive toward smart, environmentally-sustainable growth 365 days a year. This week, however, we should also reflect on what has already been achieved. So congratulations to all of us and, of course, Happy Earth Day!"

This is is a good review of the major improvements that have been made in Canada on the environment-
sht

Monday, April 20, 2009

Ethnol is it artificial bust and wishful thinking

Burn our food as gasoline. Brilliant. Farmers love it of course, because, like 99% of Americans, they love government handouts. But growing corn consumes a lot of diesel fuel. Transporting corn consumes a lot of diesel fuel. And turning corn into fuel consumes a lot of electricity... which is produced by burning coal and natural gas. Which makes ethanol a huge money loser without government support. Washington's ethanol plan is taking its only natural course: Bankruptcy. As this excellent WSJ opinion piece outlines, most ethanol players have gone belly up. So guess what is on the way from our "bigger government is better" president? You guessed it: More money and more support. Read full article...

Wishfull thinking can be dangerous . Wall street That's pretty much the story of ethanol. Consumers were asked to suspend disbelief as policy makers blurred the lines between economic reality and a business model built on fantasies of a better environment and energy independence through ethanol. Notwithstanding federal subsidies and mandates that force-feed the biofuel to the driving public, ethanol is proving to be a bust. - the market economy rules not wishful thinking Sht

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Is Solar Power Right for You?

Is Solar Power Right for You?: " useful review SGT
So how much do solar-electric systems cost? An initial estimate on an average size solar-electric system might come in at $20,000 to $40,000 — or more. But as Liz points out, an average American household can expect to spend more than $100,000 over the next 25 years on electricity. Buying a solar-electric system is like buying that electricity up front, and depending on the details of your situation, making that investment now can save you a lot of money in the future. It also creates immediate cash flow and increases the value of your home, which can help offset that sticker shock."

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Wave power

Q: You talk about geothermal, solar and wind, but you never mention wave power. Got an opinion? – G.T.

A: I think wave power is cute – it looks like a power source, only smaller... No really, these buoys do generate power. But like solar and wind, they need a whole lot of space and a whole lot of expensive investment to approach anything like a real power plant.

Wave power extracts energy from the ocean using buoys. The rise and fall of the buoys on the ocean's surface generates a current, which runs by a cable to a power station on land.

It takes 30 acres of buoys to generate 1 megawatt. The U.S. has peak production capacity of about 1,000 gigawatts of electricity. A gigawatt is 1,000 megawatts. Therefore, to generate one one-thousandth (0.001) of the energy we need, you'd have to cover almost 50 square miles of ocean.

According to Unenergy, a blog that promotes alternative energy, geothermal is the cheapest alternative energy. A new geothermal plant will cost about $6.2 million per megawatt to build. A wind farm comes in around $6.75 million per megawatt. And a new solar plant runs about $7.9 million per megawatt.
Wave systems cost around $8.2 million per megawatt.


Compare that to a coal-fired power plant that can pull carbon dioxide out of its exhaust. It would cost about $2.9 million per megawatt to build. A new nuclear power plants costs about $3.75 million per megawatt.
So for coastal towns that want to supplement their existing power grids, wave power could be an expensive but "green" option. But it won't ever be a meaningful addition to the national power supply.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Fwd: Why we are not effective as environmentalists ME

Interesting view of why zealots are not effective -food for thought SHT

From the Mother Earth news

I would describe myself as a committed environmentalist. It's my passion and my work. I've covered our deepening environmental crisis as a journalist for 30 years and now I run magazines and Web sites dedicated to raising human awareness of environmental issues. My wife and I raise much of our own food on our little organic farm and we supply organic food to lots of other local families. Environmentalism is my passion, my career, my chief avocation.

I've watched the environmental "movement," if you will, grow from a radical, tie-dyed clique into a mainstream global consensus. I don't think we, as environmentalists, can take much credit for that however.

We have, for the last 30 years, been among society's least effective leaders and least pleasurable companions. In his 2006 essay, "Beyond Hope," Derrick Jensen claims that the most common words he hears spoken by environmentalists,everywhere,are "We're fucked."[1] He exaggerates, but he has a point.

Our attitudes reek of Puritanism. We are, often, dour, strict and humorless. We're judgmental. Behind most of life's simple pleasures we see unnecessary consumption, which we ridicule. Because humanity is responsible for environmental problems we are, ipso facto, all sinners and we find little joy in being human. We portray the giant global corporations as occult covens, and we burn their representatives in effigy in our own reenactments of the Salem witch trials. When our neighbors seem too moderate or abstract for our tastes — as the Quakers did to New England's 17th-century Puritans — we whip them out of the colony, at least figuratively, and we're not above discussing executions. (The Puritan authorities hanged four Quakers for their religious beliefs in Boston between 1659 and 1661.)

To say the least, we're no fun a lot of the time.

Maybe that explains why we've accomplished so little in the past 30 years. After all, we were right all along. Why has it taken popular opinion so long to catch up?

Well, for one thing, no one follows a pessimist. We've spent far too much time confessing our sins and assigning our scarlet letters. We've invested far too little time visualizing successful outcomes.



[1] Jensen, Derrick. Beyond Hope. May/June 2006 issue of Orion magazine. Excerpted from Endgame, published in June 2006 by Seven Stories Press.

--
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"Building elder peer communities that are cozy,caring and comfortable" -quality 24/7 care

Saturday, April 04, 2009

United States Had Record Solar Energy Growth in 2008

United States Had Record Solar Energy Growth in 2008: "United States Had Record Solar Energy Growth in 2008
The United States’ solar energy capacity jumped a record 17 percent last year, though the U.S. solar photovoltaic market still lags behind those of Spain and Germany.
March 25, 2008 From EERE Network News
Image Gallery
The Solar Energy Industries Association estimates that 342 megawatts of solar photovoltaic electric power were installed throughout the United States in 2008."

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The green factor- 90% favour programs to reduce warming

Most Americans want global warming cuts
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (UPI) -- Researchers say more than 90 percent of U.S. citizens support governmental action to reduce global warming despite the current economic crisis.

The results of a national survey prepared by researchers at Yale and George Mason Universities included 34 percent who said the United States should make such a major effort, even if it has large economic costs. And two-thirds of survey participants said the United States should reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases regardless of what other countries do.

"When you make a mess, you're supposed to clean up after yourself," said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of Yale University's Project on Climate Change. "We think many Americans view climate change in a similar way. The United States should act to reduce its own emissions regardless of what other countries do."

Peoples' primary concerns about reducing global warming were that it would lead to more government regulation (44 percent), cause energy prices to rise (31 percent) or cost jobs and harm the economy (17 percent), the researchers said. However, among those who believed both positive and negative outcomes will occur, 92 percent said that despite their concerns, the nation should act to reduce global warming.

The results come from a nationally representative survey of 2,164 American adults, age 18 and older. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 2 percent.

The report is available in PDF format at http://envirocenter.research.yale.edu/uploads/climatechange-report2.pdf.

--ECO Energy Canada Organization

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Green Energy Alternatives- light LEDS

St. George firm touted for role in 'green' future

Posted By SUSAN GAMBLE, EXPOSITOR STAFF

John Johnston is an engineer who's seen the light.

Johnston, 44, proudly showed off his new St. George firm to Deputy Premier George Smitherman on Tuesday.

He is counting on the burgeoning light-emitting diode industry to build a brilliant and environmentally sound business.

Johnston's new and bright LED lights can create energy savings of up to 80 per cent by replacing the old-style bulbs in street lights and parking lot lights, or mercury vapour lights in gyms and warehouses.

It's a product that Smitherman, who is also the minister of Energy and Infrastructure, found more than intriguing.

"This is very exciting," Smitherman said during a tour of the small plant with Brant MPP Dave Levac.

"It's great to see this kind of enthusiasm to bring new technology forward."

Smitherman's visit to ProTerra is part of his promotion of the proposed Green Energy Act, which aims to boost the economy with green jobs while benefiting the environment.

"We want to create a culture of conservation in Ontario," said the minister.

ProTerra could be a poster child for the proposed legislation, which the minister hopes will pass by the summer.

It's caught the leading edge of changes in LED lighting that have seen increased wattage that creates enormously bright lights which can replicate daylight.

The company's three main patented products -- LED channels that replace fluorescent light bulbs, lights that replace bulbs in parking and street lights, and lights that replace bulbs in bay lights -- cost more than their counterparts, but will last longer and save a substantial amount of energy once installed, said Johnston.

"We're working with a company in California that's installed these and they believe that, in three years, they'll be making money on their lighting," Johnston said.

Not only can large industrial, commercial and civic buildings save money on energy, but Johnston said they can realize a tremendous labour savings as well. In some schools, hospitals and companies where fluorescent bulbs have to be replaced frequently, the new LED channels would stay bright for years.

The LED lights have health benefits, especially for those who have problems working under fluorescent lighting.

Plus, he noted, when you replace the fluorescent tube with an LED channel, you also remove the ballast, which is an environmental hazard and generally only lasts about three years.

"We've seen compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) but people jumped too quickly on them. They have mercury in them and are toxic."

LED lighting, on the other hand, has been around since the 1950s but until recently has often been a novelty product.

"LEDs have no hazards and the brightness is finally there. The lights are getting brighter and brighter with less wattage."

ProTerra's street lamp replacement -- which just replaces the bulb, not the lamp itself -- can use a 50 watt LED to provide the same amount of light as an existing 250 watt bulb.

"I feel so enthusiastic when we see an entrepreneur dedicated to such a project," Smitherman said. "I want to come back here when we see some of the 50,000 jobs we've projected are here."

Started in December, ProTerra has just 11 employees right now but Johnston is confident he's at the forefront of a huge push. He's projecting 70 to 80 workers will be on three assembly lines in the plant eventually, plus he expects another 30 to 40 spinoff jobs will be created as all the parts for the LED units are purchased in the area.

For information on the St. George company, go to its website at www.proterraled.com.

--

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Monday, March 23, 2009

eco energy links

Useful knowledge and do it yourself links on green energy saving options

link

Build your own energy source and save

Product


Build your solar panels


 Step-by-Step and easy to read instructions!
 Diagrams and Schematics!
 Maintenance Tips and Schedules!
 Energy Saving Secrets That Help Cut Electricity and Gas Costs Even More!
 Pre-Construction Checklist!
 And Plenty of Special Tips and Tricks To Get You Up and Running Even Faster
!


Build solar panels and windmills


videos

 



Engineer explains how to build energy system for $200



Green Options

Solar and wind energy

Make your own fuel -pellets with free available material

portable pelletizer


http://www.biomasspelletmill.com/?hop=eco2009


Biomass Pellet Production Solutions


Heat with energy pellets The pelletization process

Video presentation

Blog links to gasification


(corn /pellet stove)


Green Energy solutions  



Green Energy How to Digest

Run car on water bonus



Convert your car to electric with these step by step instructions  



Electric car conversion





 


We would like to hear from those that have actually

done it . Please share your knowledge and

achievements with us

 Electric or heating Bill Drastically Reduced Or Eliminated Completely

 Help Fight Global warming by going sustainable green


 

Source it - build it- enjoy it-


S. Holle

respondfeedbacknow@yahoo.ca



Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Flying cars to solve congestion - Yahoo! Autos Canada

Flying cars to solve congestion - Yahoo! Autos Canada: "Flying cars to solve congestion
- Alisdair Suttie

A plane-car hybrid could be on sale within 20 years according to aircraft industry leaders.

Scientists at the 2008 Electric Aircraft Symposium in California believe a flying car could be a production reality.

Boeing, famous for its 747 jumbo jet, is working on a flying car that would have a range of 300 miles (482 kilometres) in the air, on the ground, or a mix of the two.

Richard Jones is leading the project at Boeing and said: 'I'm talking about making aviation available to everyone as a daily means of transport.'

Jones says a compact car-plane hybrid would be easier to fly than current small planes as technology will allow the plane to do much of the hard work."

Great idea hope it get done sooner then 20 years SHT

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Ways for Companies to Shrink Their Environmental Footprint

Water- - how to reduce the foot print:

Nalco’s Chief Technology Officer Dr. Manian Ramesh told attendees at the Water Footprint Summit USA in Miami the many ways companies can reduce their water use and shrink their environmental footprint..

“Water is a crucial component in numerous industrial production processes and in cooling and heating any large facility,” points out Dr. Ramesh. “For more than 80 years, Nalco has been helping customers optimize their water use. With increasing global water scarcity and increasing environmental restrictions, our ability to help those customers reduce water consumption, extend asset life, improve energy efficiency and cut waste helps them address the challenges of sustainable development.”

Dr. Ramesh’s presentation “Profitable Performance with a Smaller Environmental Footprint.” covered several key topics, including:

Measuring, analyzing and understanding your plant water costs
Creating a Base Line: Gathering operational data on water quality, flows and volume usage from water in to water out of your plant /li>
Benchmarking Your Water Usage: Plant to plant, plant to Corporate, Corporate to Industry
Designing the path forward and implementing improvement projects to secure sustainable gains
Nalco technologies bring a number of benefits to customers and the environment–cleaner water, less industrial use of fresh water, energy savings, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and reduction in air pollutants.
The Water Footprint Summit USA provides opportunities for representatives from a variety of industries to learn how to develop water use reduction strategies. Click on the attachment link below to view Dr. Ramesh’s presentation.


Attachment

ProActive Rants: Water footprint

ProActive Rants: Water footprint

The water footprint is critical to existence . Conservation ,better use ,new technology are all in the cards for next generation survival. We welcome your ideas on this SHT

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

china solar plant

China building solar plant for 30K homes
BEIJING (UPI) -- China will start construction as early as next month on an experimental solar thermal plant capable of powering at least 30,000 homes, officials say.

China Daily reported Thursday that Asia's first 1.5-megawatt solar thermal power station will be built in a Beijing suburb at a cost of $14.7 million and start operating next year.

Wang Zhifeng -- who is heading up the project and is the solar thermal power laboratory director for the Chinese Academy of Sciences -- said the plant would be designed and operated by 10 Chinese institutions and companies, including the academy, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Huadian Corp. and Himin Solar Group.

Wang projects the plant -- which will cover 32 acres and include 100 curved mirrors that track the sun and redirect the rays to a receiver atop a 328-foot tower -- will generate up to 2.7 million kwh of electricity per year, equivalent to eliminating 2,300 tons of carbon dioxide emissions from conventional power plants.

The receiver's concentrated solar thermal power will generate steam that will power a turbine used for electricity generation.

Solar thermal power plants are typically much larger than plants made of photovoltaic solar panels that use sunlight to produce electricity.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Dalton McGuinty’s “Green” Illusions on Jobs

An interesting and provocative point of view from the Frontier Centre. Alchemy did not work in the past because it had no scientific or factual basis to work.Are Dalton's green jobs more alchemy and wishful thinking ? Wiii this myth get busted -you decide. Based on experience, I agree with the following entitlement pitfall and consequence statement

" They use taxpayer dollars to subsidize the renewable energy sector; they lay damaging regulations on the traditional fossil fuel sector, and they issue mandates for the use of renewable energy that creates a false market in wind power at the expense of fossil fuel and nuclear power. Along the way, governments siphon off a chunk of the moneys they divert for administration, and they tend to create jobs that pay higher wages than those for a comparable activity in the private sector.

Invariably, at the end of the day, government efforts to create jobs cost the economy jobs on net, and add insult to injury by causing economic underperformance because they’ve diverted limited resources to inefficient uses".

In China ,when the government got out of the way-it magically became the second largest world economy in a very real and short leap forward. The invisible hand of the market, not artificial government hands ,create real jobs and real technology

SHT comment


In Brief:

One of the eternal fallacies of government (and the people who love government) is that governments can “create” jobs in the private sector.
They can’t, as the French politician Frederic Bastiat once noted, because they have to take money from productive areas of the economy and kill jobs there first, to “create” the “new” jobs.
For the record, calling something “green” doesn’t change this fundamental economic truth.
Everyone would love to end the recession, and enjoy clean, abundant, and affordable energy. But there are some hard realities that suggest Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s plan isn’t the smart way to do it.

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One of the eternal fallacies of government (and the people who love government) is that governments can “create” jobs in the private sector. A second fallacy is that somehow, calling something “green” suspends the fundamental laws of economics and really does offer you a free lunch and a utopian future of affordable, abundant clean energy.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty seems to fallen afoul of both these fallacies with his new “Green Energy Act.” The Act, which does not have a defined price-tag, would supposedly create 50,000 new jobs, putting people to work building windmills, solar power plants, and bio-fuel plants. The Green Energy Act, he claims, will lead Ontario out of its recession and into a glorious future of clean energy.

Now, everyone would love to end the recession, and enjoy clean, abundant, and affordable energy. But there are some hard realities that suggest Premier McGuinty’s plan isn’t the smart way to do it. Let’s review the reasons why governments cannot create jobs, and why labeling them “green” doesn’t change the basic dynamics.

Let’s start with the fallacy that governments can create jobs. This fallacy was exploded all the way back in 1845, by a French politician and political economist named Frédéric Bastiat. Bastiat pointed out that the only way governments can make jobs is by first breaking other jobs. Sometimes, they break other jobs by diverting taxpayer money away from the economic uses the taxpayer would have pursued if they got to keep their taxes. Other times, they break jobs by imposing regulations that kill off one industry in favor of another. In still other situations, they impose mandates, such as mandates to use recycled paper that create an artificial market for recycled paper, reducing jobs in fresh-paper production.

In the green energy case, they do all of the above: they use taxpayer dollars to subsidize the renewable energy sector; they lay damaging regulations on the traditional fossil fuel sector, and they issue mandates for the use of renewable energy that creates a false market in wind power at the expense of fossil fuel and nuclear power. Along the way, governments siphon off a chunk of the moneys they divert for administration, and they tend to create jobs that pay higher wages than those for a comparable activity in the private sector. Invariably, at the end of the day, government efforts to create jobs cost the economy jobs on net, and add insult to injury by causing economic underperformance because they’ve diverted limited resources to inefficient uses.
Now, let’s take the second fallacy, that somehow, there’s a free lunch if you call something “green.” The way that the green lobby does this is by inflating the expected value that society will get from engaging in a green activity that it otherwise wouldn’t get with a non-green alternative. In this case, the green aspect of the premier’s plan is that it would result in a reduction of greenhouse gases related to energy production. There’s only one problem: the amount of greenhouse gases that Canada could eliminate, even if the entire country simply shut down, is not sufficient to retard global warming in any significant way. Canada’s fossil-fuel greenhouse gas emissions account for about two per cent of world emissions. Ontario’s emissions are only seven-tenths of one percent of the world total. China, which is building a coal power plant every week, emits more than 10 times the greenhouse gases than all of Canada does, and shows no signs of slowing.

Ontario’s green energy program will offer virtually no climate change protection or delay in warming, and therefore no benefit to offset the costs of raising Canada’s energy prices, raising the cost of goods and services, and rending Canadian exports less competitive in world markets.

Mr. McGuinty, along with others such as U.S. President Obama who have internalized the twin fallacies of job creation and the free lunch need a reality check before they squander limited resources and worsen the economic prospects for North America. Energy is too important a policy field to be guided by such fallacious thinking. Developed countries are energy civilizations, first and foremost. Everything we make, do, and use requires multiple infusions of energy in creation and maintenance. Taking actions to raise the cost of energy using a fallacious job-creation approach and fallacious benefit claims will only exacerbate Ontario’s suffering in the ongoing world economic downturn.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Goals for Ethanol Production Are in Peril - NYTimes.com

Goals for Ethanol Production Are in Peril - NYTimes.com: "Barely a year after Congress enacted an energy law meant to foster a huge national enterprise capable of converting plants and agricultural wastes into automotive fuel, the goals lawmakers set for the ethanol industry are in serious jeopardy.
Skip to next paragraph
Related
Green Inc.: Senator: Ailing Ethanol Industry Needs Help (February 12, 2009) As recently as last summer, plants that make ethanol from corn were sprouting across the Midwest. But now, with motorists driving less in the economic downturn, the industry is burdened with excess capacity, and plants are shutting down virtually every week.
In the meantime, plans are lagging for a new generation of factories that were supposed to produce ethanol from substances like wood chips and crop waste, overcoming the drawbacks of corn ethanol. That nascent branch of the industry concedes it has virtually no chance of meeting Congressional production mandates that kick in next year.
The decline in fortunes has been extreme for both kinds of ethanol since last summer, when $145-a-barrel oil appeared to shift fuel economics in their favor.
Only months ago, refiners in some regions were buying up as much corn ethanol as they could to blend with expensive gasoline, effectively keeping pump prices down slightly. Meanwhile, investors seemed willing to finance plants to produce next-generation biofuels.
But since the summer, oil and gasoline prices have plunged, while the price of corn, from which virtually all commercial ethanol in this country is made, has remained relatively high. Refiners are limiting their ethanol purchases to a level required to meet federal blending mandates — a level far below the industry’s capacity."

bad times ahead for the industry - opportunity to buy? SHT

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

New locomotion harnessing water energy

Boat propels itself using water's energy
PITTSBURGH (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've designed a "mini boat" that propels itself by harnessing energy contained in the water's surface.

University of Pittsburgh researchers said the technique destabilizes the surface tension surrounding the boat with an electric pulse and causes the craft to move using the surface's natural pull.

Professor Sung Kwon Cho, who led the research, said the method offers an efficient and low-maintenance mechanism for small robots and boats that monitor water quality in oceans, reservoirs and other bodies of water. Such devices are currently propeller-driven, but the Pitt system has no moving parts and the low-energy electrode that emits the pulse could be powered by batteries, radio waves or solar power, Cho said.

Cho and doctoral students Sang Kug Chung and Kyungjoo Ryu presented their findings Monday in Sorrento, Italy, during the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' 2009 Micro Electro Mechanical Systems conference.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Green ink saves the environment

"Print books needed three times more raw materials and 78 times more water consumption than e-books. In another study out of the University of Berkeley, reading a newspaper electronically released 32-140 times less CO2 and used 27 times less water. "

reader information http://reviews.cnet.com/e-book-readers/sony-reader-digital-book/4505-3508_7-32672723.html?tag=rnav

Electronic ink Posted By VIVIAN SONG, SUN MEDIA

I find comfort in the esthetic of a bookcase fully lined with Pulitzer Prize winning fiction, cookbooks, chick lit and old English classics.

I keep my shelves stacked with at least a handful of unread novels, otherwise I feel as though I've run out of milk or bread -- the feeling of being short on something, the need to replenish.
While I loathe newsprint ink on my fingers, I love the crisp, brittle sound of newspaper pages being turned.
But the publishing industry is entering a new chapter, one that could go paperless and revolutionize the way we read.

The company that has blazed the paper trail in all this is E Ink, a spinoff company of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Its technology, electronic ink, is used in e-books which can store hundreds of book titles, magazines and newspapers in a portable device.
"If you can get lost in a story, it doesn't matter if it's electronic or paper," said Rita Toews, the Winnipeg woman behind the recently launched site ebookweek. week.com. Toews is also author of Body Traffic, , shortlisted for the Margaret Laurence Book Award.

Unlike the LCD screen, E Ink's technology enables the electronic reader to replicate the look and feel of a printed book: Displays have the visual appeal of ink-on-paper and use no backlight so that screens can be viewed under almost any lighting condition, including direct sunlight, all the while using little power. Typically, one battery charge of four hours can power 7,500 continuous page turns.

While the notion of e-readers may take the poetry out of curling into bed with a good book, Toews' site makes a compelling environmental argument for altering our reading behaviour.
In his 2003 thesis, University of Michigan student Greg Kozak studied the life-cycle assessment of paper books versus e-books. He found that a paper book created four times the greenhouse gas emissions of an e-book reader.
Print books needed three times more raw materials and 78 times more water consumption than e-books.
In another study out of the University of Berkeley, reading a newspaper electronically released 32-140 times less CO2 and used 27 times less water.
In the U. S., where e-reader sales have taken off, customers are able to download books, magazines and major daily newspapers such as USA Today. It's a future the newspaper industry is eyeing with careful suspicion -- online readership has already endangered the print format, putting thousands of traditional newspaper men and women out of work.
But French newspaper Les Echos has been offering its content on the e-reader iRex iLiad since 2007. Stories are delivered wirelessly and updated every hour. Cos t for the subscription and the unit is around $600 Cdn.

While newspaper subscription is not yet available on the only ebook in Canada, the Sony Reader Digital Book, company spokeswoman Candice Hayman said a major Canadian newspaper, which she declined to identify, recently expressed interest in the device.
The Sony reader launched last April in Canada and retails for $299. The cost of downloading books, however, is a fraction of its hardcopy edition, averaging about $10.
Meanwhile, Esquire published its 75th edition to much fanfare last October, the first magazine to use electronic ink on its cover. An animated cover flashed the words "The 21st Century Begins Now" on magazine stands, stealing the attention from the static images of its lifeless competitors.
"If we look at the publishing industry, the content is readable but not changeable," said E Ink spokesman Sriram Peruvemba from Cambridge, Mass.
"Electronic format is changeable but not readable. We tried to combine the two and get the best of both worlds."
For those still resistant to the idea, Toews points that the paperback novel was snubbed by the literary elite when it emerged in the 1930s. But it became popular during the war, allowing troops to carry them in their backpocket and is now a legitimate form of publishing.
"Paper's going to become more of a luxury," he said. "My daughter planted a sapling in school, but it will take 10 years for the sapling to grow. In the next 20 minutes you could change your reading behaviour, read an ebook and save a tree."
International Read an E-Book Week is March 8 to 14.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

government help

Do you need money to upgrade your home or business for yourself or the environment. Here is a useful list of sources of government money. If you wish we will help you with solutions .

Rebates and Incentives
Government of Canada's ecoENERGY Retrofit - Homes Program

Province of Ontario'sHome Energy Audit Rebate ProgramHome Energy Retrofit Program
Home Energy Retrofit Program

Ontario Power Authority'sCool Savings Rebate

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation'sMortgage Loan Insurance Rebate

Genworth Financial'sMortgage Loan Insurance Rebate

government help

Rebates and Incentives
Government of Canada's ecoENERGY Retrofit - Homes Program

Province of Ontario'sHome Energy Audit Rebate ProgramHome Energy Retrofit Program
Home Energy Retrofit Program

Ontario Power Authority'sCool Savings Rebate

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation'sMortgage Loan Insurance Rebate

Genworth Financial'sMortgage Loan Insurance Rebate

arabs-Go where the money is in energy

Oil rich Arabia investing in green future
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (UPI) -- Arabian countries that rely on dollars from oil are now pumping enormous sums into green energy research to stay ahead of the curve. "Abu Dhabi is an oil-exporting country, and we want to become an energy-exporting country and to do that we need to excel at the newer forms of energy," said Khaled Awad, director of a zero-carbon city rising in the Abu Dhabi desert. The second annual World Future Energy Summit, which starts Monday in Abu Dhabi, signals the region's intent to maintain its hold on energy production, The New York Times reported Tuesday. While grant money is tight elsewhere, King Abdulla University of Science and Technology awarded a Stanford University researcher $25 million in 2008 to find a way to reduce the cost of solar energy production. The university also gave a California researcher $8 million to develop environmentally-friendly concrete. Abu Dhabi's crown prince said in January he will invest $15 billion in green energy, the same amount President-elect Barack Obama proposed to kick start "a clean energy future" in the United States, the Times said. In developing future energy sources, Arabian countries have two advantages: Money from oil to fund projects and plenty of sunshine to research solar power, the Times said.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Energy conservation becomes sexy

Energy independence How Nova Scotia could lead the way to a greener Canada.
By Joe Castaldo

Nova Scotia may not be among the worst Canadian offenders when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions on an absolute basis, but the province is taking a unique step toward improving its performance.
Last year Nova Scotia commissioned David Wheeler, dean of the Dalhousie University’s faculty of management, to determine the most appropriate way to promote and implement energy efficiency measures in the province. Mainly, Wheeler focused on “demand side management,” which involves helping customers use less electricity.
Wheeler consulted with some 40-odd stakeholders — consumers, government, and industry representatives — and concluded the best approach would be to create an independent agency at arm’s length from the government, as opposed to having an entirely government- or utility-led initiative, as is typically done in the rest of Canada and the U.S. The provincial government announced this month it would move ahead with Wheeler’s recommendation and set up the agency by the end of next year.
The proposed model in Nova Scotia carries a number of advantages, such as increased flexibility and accountability. The agency will have performance standards, and the administrators can be removed if those goals are not met. Governments, on the other hand, may lack the technical expertise, while utilities have historically done a poor job when it comes to encouraging customers to consume less energy, according to Wheeler’s report. (Utilities are in the business of selling electricity, of course.) One potential downside, however, is Wheeler believes the new organization could have high startup costs, however, and that those costs will be covered by the ratepayers themselves.
Wheeler recommends leaving open the option of transforming the organization into a “one-stop-shop” for all energy efficiency measures, not just demand-side management. Such an organization can have spin-off benefits, too, he told Nova Scotia’s Chronicle Herald, such as motivating engineering firms to develop new energy efficient processes and products.