Wisconsin Nuclear power plant measure fizzles

Nuclear power plant construction likely will be just as difficult to accomplish after the legislative session as it was before.

The Clean Energy Jobs Act would repeal a state law that prohibits nuclear power plant construction in Wisconsin until the federal government builds a repository to store nuclear waste.

That law, Soletski said, creates a moratorium on nuclear plant development.

"The federal government has given up on the repository," he said. "So as long as the goofy language about it stays in state law, you can't build."

Please read more at DailyReporter

DOE - National Collaboration on LED Street Lights

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced today that Seattle City Light, Seattle's publicly owned power utility, has been selected to lead a national effort to guide municipalities in evaluating light emitting diode (LED) street lights. The Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium will collect, analyze, and share information and lessons learned about LED street-lighting demonstrations to facilitate the adoption of this energy efficiency technology. 

Starting today, cities, power providers and others who invest in street and area lighting are invited to join the consortium and share their experiences through national and regional meetings, Webcasts, Web-based discussion forums, and other means. The goal is to build a repository of valuable field experience and data that will significantly accelerate the learning curve for buying and implementing high-quality, energy efficient LED street lights. 

Please read full at DOE 

Happy Earth Day From Les Phillip?

"I'll give you a couple of examples of what we need to get rid of: the Department of Energy, EPA, OSHA and IRS." - Les Phillip  Decatur Daily (ViA Cal-OSHA)

Some may not like to hear some of the things he is saying, but at least he is saying some things that need to be said. And like Ron Paul and Nader these words will make him a 'slim candidate'.
Wise words inside: "Rich people will never get screwed, no matter what we do. We tried it in the '80s with the (taxation of) yachts," Phillip said. "Rich people just changed their behavior. The market collapsed, and 10,000 people were out of work. They had to repeal the law." Excessive taxes have pushed manufacturers overseas. That has not hurt the rich, Phillip said, but the middle class.

While he said he believes civil rights legislation helped the nation, he said entitlement programs are destroying it.

"The very people they're attempting to help get hurt. You see that in the war on poverty," he said. "When you have an 8 percent out-of-wedlock birth rate in 1964 and now it's at 70 percent in the black community and almost 50 percent in the white community — a nation cannot survive that way." - Les Phillip, Republican candidate for Alabama's 5th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Haase - Funny How I had 'lefties and righties' email me this with different 'skewed viewpoints and selected quotes ;-)

Pickens and Obama about "the big problem"

This week China Invested $20 Billion in securing of nearly 15% U.S. oil in Venezuela...
Foreign Oil: China has a plan. We don't.
"And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as president: In 10 years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East." — President Barack Obama

The countries that export the most oil to us - like Venezuela, Nigeria, Iraq, and Angola are either from unstable regions or do not have America's interests at heart, or both. Oil prices have come down from a year ago, but even though our addiction to foreign oil is cheaper, it is still a very dangerous addiction from a national security standpoint. We cannot allow foreign nations to control our security, environmental, and economic future. - Picken

HAASE NOTE: This is a 25 year deal with China to secure oil. While I may not agree with everything Pickens and President Obama state, I wholeheartedly agree with these oil statements. I also believe that if the two of them sat down with me, they would have a 'viable option' to make there 'carter era unicorn dreams' of reducing oil consumption a reality - Haase.

Oil Quote of the week:"because it's a cartel maximizing its share"

This quote is as relevant as much as it is irrelevant... as it could of been pulled from headlines of the 70's or 80's

"By using more electricity, natural gas and biofuels in our transportation fleet, we can quickly reduce our dependence on OPEC."

How to End America's Addiction to Oil - Wall Street Journal: At the end of March, oil posted its fifth consecutive quarterly price increase: It's now solidly above $80 per barrel. If it reaches $125 a barrel again, as it did in 2008, then approximately half the wealth in the world—above and below ground—will be controlled by OPEC nations. 

Oil dominates transportation: About 95% of transportation fuel in the U.S. is derived from petroleum... But OPEC is pumping less than it did in the 1970s, despite a doubling in global demand, because it's a cartel maximizing its - WSJ

Haase Note: FAIL- In 1970, we imported 24% of our oil.

Finally Congress to Address Helium Shortage

Congress to Address Helium Shortage Hurting Scientific Research and Nuclear Security (popSci) Failure to recognize an impending supply squeeze for helium-3--a nonradioactive gas produced in the agency's nuclear weapons complex--has created a national crisis requiring White House intervention and threatening... This Helium Shortage could hit the Nuke , Oil And Gas Industry - HARD

Congress will scramble to address the isotope paucity this week

A large Cold War supply of helium-3 has begun to rapidly run out, due to heavy demand from U.S. scientists who need the gas for neutron detectors and cryogenic experiments. Almost 60,000 liters of helium-3 were used in 2007 and 2008, compared to just 10,000 liters used annually about 10 years ago. A House subcommittee has been convened to search for a solution this week, New Scientist reports.

The U.S. formerly stockpiled helium-3 from the decay of tritium, the radioactive hydrogen isotope used to make nuclear weapons. That helium-3 supply stopped growing for the most part when the U.S. ceased making tritium in 1988. But in an ironic twist, the fast-growing use of neutron detectors in security systems designed to detect illegal plutonium and other nuclear materials has dramatically eaten into the helium-3 stockpile.

The shortage has slowed down the growth of quantum computing and other scientific fields which depend upon frigid conditions provided by helium-3 refrigeration. National laboratories have also been forced to develop less-sensitive neutron detectors which rely upon lithium and boron instead of helium-3.

Since the early freeze on tritium production, the U.S. did resume making bomb-grade tritium at one civilian nuclear plant in 2003. The AP notes that President Obama's 2010 budget includes funds for the Tennessee Valley Authority to expand tritium-production to a second nuclear plant, even if Obama has taken a recent stand against the development of new nuclear weapons. So fans of a quantum computing future need not give up hope just yet.

[via New Scientist]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yet just last year wasn't Congress directed the government to sell essentially all of the U.S. helium reserves by 2015.  

A new report from the National Research Council finds that selling off the reserves has adversely affected critical users of helium and recommends that the federal government reconsider whether selling the reserves is still in the nation's best interest.

Presentations from DOD 2010 Climate and Energy Symposium

Presentations from DOD 2010 Climate and Energy Symposium 

From Integration & Synthesis Panel Introduction, John Benedict [PDF]

We didn't buy Endurance in the past: when designing everything that used energy in the battlespace, we assumed fuel logistics was free and invulnerable; fuel would auto-magically appear, both in theater and in wargames

Now we know better, so we'll value fuel 1–2 orders of magnitude higher.

Source TOD

The new Prius minivan in U.S. next year

NextBigFuture:

In the picture is the Toyota Estima hybrid minivan that has been available only in Japan

Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) will launch competitively priced Prius hybrid minivans using lithium ion batteries early next year, the Nikkei business daily reported.

The new Prius minivan will offer a spacious interior and improved fuel economy, and will likely feature three rows of seats for carrying five to seven people, the paper said.

The company will initially manufacture lithium ion batteries at its Teiho factory in Aichi Prefecture, and later plans to produce them at Panasonic EV Energy Co, a battery joint venture with Panasonic Corp (6752.T), the Nikkei said.

A lithium-ion battery can pack more electricity than a nickel-metal hydride counterpart, enabling a hybrid car to run longer on a single charge

Read full at NextBigFuture:

EPA Announces New Guidelines for Energy Star Homes

Laura B. p2tech - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing new, more rigorous guidelines for new homes that earn the Energy Star label. Compared to the current Energy Star guidelines, the new requirements will make qualified new homes at least 20 percent more efficient than homes built to the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) – slashing utility bills for qualified homes by 15 percent compared to IECC code-built homes.

The updated requirements will ensure that the government's Energy Star label continues to deliver a significant increase in energy efficiency over homes that are built to code and standard builder business practices.  These guidelines will go into effect in January 2011, although some builders may choose to adopt the new requirements earlier.

More information about Energy Star qualified homes:  http://www.energystar.gov

Why dirty work is shipped out of U.S.

Federal regulations cost a whopping $1.187 trillion last year in compliance burdens on Americans.

"Trillion-dollar deficits and regulatory costs in the trillions are both unsettling new developments for America," said report author, Clyde Wayne Crews, CEI Vice President for Policy. "It is sobering to note how both dwarf the initial $150 billion 'stimulus package' of early 2008."

The costs of federal regulations often exceed the benefits, yet receive little official scrutiny from Congress.

The report urges Congress to step up and take responsibility as lawmakers to review and roll back economically harmful regulations. "Rolling back regulations would constitute the deregulatory stimulus that the U.S. economy needs," said Crews. - Read more at DocuTicker

Kohler Flush with ideas and water saving products

Water-saving toilets: designs have improved and "there's no trade-off now," said Shane Judd, product manger for water conservation at the Kohler Co.

"They're more efficient in terms of using less water and performing better than their 1.6-gallon counterparts."

Just installing a high-efficiency toilet, faucet and shower head can save an average family of four 39,000 gallons of water a year, compared with models considered the industry standard.

With all the attention on rising energy bills, there's been a big focus on energy-efficient appliances, but that hasn't always translated over to the water side.

"People just don't think about how much water they flush in their toilet. It's not top of mind," Judd said.

"When you tell somebody that 25% of the water that's consumed for indoor use is flushed down the toilet, they start to connect the dots" and see not only water savings but cost savings over time.

In the past few years, Kohler Co. has moved to green up its product line and now boasts that nearly every model of faucet it produces is water-saving, earning the Environmental Protection Agency WaterSense label.

Focusing on a sustainable future...

The company is embracing what Johnson Controls Inc., Kohl's Corp. and other companies have dubbed the "triple bottom line" - balancing economic, environmental and social factors in strategizing for the future.

"Our fundamental premise was that it's really about the triple bottom line - the economic, environmental and social aspect - and how can we develop a strategy, because at the end of the day we're still about business, still about growth and still about advancing this company, but in a sustainable fashion," Judd said.

....The company has revamped its product design process so that "everything takes place through the lens of sustainability," Judd said.

Case in point: the dual-flush toilet with no handle. Pick one button for "number one" and just 0.8 gallons of water will flush. Button number two flushes away a more significant amount of waste with 1.6 gallons of water.

"The design is very contemporary and easy to clean, so it allows consumers to install a product that has beautiful design but also conserves water," Judd said.

Education campaign

Kohler's new green push extends beyond its factories and products to a national education campaign designed to educate Americans about water scarcity.

"Thirty six states will face water shortages by 2013,"

Kohler warns on its www.savewateramerica.com Web site, the host site for its awareness campaign.

Please read full from Milwaukee Journal Sentential

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Haase:   While reducing consumer use is vital, reducing commercial and industrial water waste is critical.

Kohlers LEED Waterless urinals could also revolutionize water savings in large scale applications reducing "40,000 gallons of water per fixture per year" in typical commercial installations.

Learn more about WaterSense and what you can do to help make every drop count.

Related water posts

Shoppers line up early for appliance rebates

VIA Laura B. P2Tech

Shoppers lined up early this morning to take advantage of a 15 percent appliance rebate program under which the state of Illinois will hand out $6.5 million in federal funds to people who buy energy-efficient refrigerators, dishwashers and the like.

Some 670 stores in Illinois are competing for instant rebates in the program that could have a short life — Arizona and Iowa went through their cash-for-appliances money in a matter of hours.

Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.

DOE Issues Federal Fleet Management Guidance

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Federal Energy Management Program today released its Federal Fleet Management Guidance, meeting a requirement of President Obama's Executive Order (E.O. 13514) on Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance. This is the first comprehensive guidance to address the environmental impact of the Federal fleet and will help agencies develop petroleum and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction strategies.

In signing E.O. 13514, President Obama called on Federal agencies to reduce petroleum fuel use by 2 percent each year from 2005 through 2020, for a total 30 percent reduction. The fleet guidance highlights a number of ways Federal agencies can reduce petroleum consumption by reducing vehicle miles traveled, increasing fleet fuel efficiency and switching to lower GHG-emitting and alternative fuels. Agencies will be accountable for meeting these goals, and are required to annually report on their progress and make adjustments as necessary. Each vehicle purchase must demonstrate how it helps support the agency's mission and sustainability targets.

 Full Document (via DocUticker)

Increasing Energy Efficiency: Key to Securing America’s Energy Future

U.S. Chamber of Commerce (via DocUticker)

Karen Harbert, president and CEO of the Institute for 21st Century Energy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, today told lawmakers that while targeted tax incentives can play a role in fostering deployment of clean energy, there are other instruments that may prove to be more impactful and less expensive over time.

In testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee today about Energy Tax Incentives and the Green Job Economy, Harbert noted that in addition to fiscal tools, other weapons in the policy arsenal should be used to tackle our energy challenges.

"As we examine energy policy, it is more important than ever that we look to options that don't further burden the taxpayer or jeopardize energy security and offer the greatest return on investment to our economy," Harbert said. "It is important to realize that tax incentives are only one avenue to foster the deployment of clean technologies, and there are other instruments which, in some situations, may prove more impactful and less expensive over time."

Full PDF report here

Using matrix to predict extinction

Jeremy Hance - Mongabay
.."One of the main differences between habitat islands and true islands is the intervening matrix," says Koh. By 'matrix', Koh does not mean an alternate reality where one can fight in slow-motion, but instead the type of landscapes in targeted areas, such as old-growth forests, secondary forest, small-scale agriculture, pasture, plantations, urban landscapes, and many others.

Figure 1: Extent of Deforestation in Borneo 1950-2005,

"In true island systems, the matrix is the ocean. It is quite reasonable to assume that most terrestrial organisms would not survive very well in this ocean matrix. The same, however, cannot be said of the matrix between habitat islands on a mainland because, in this case, the matrix could be a whole variety of land uses," Koh says, adding that "the main constraint of the conventional species-area model is that it assumes all organisms respond exactly the same to matrix (i.e. to be like an ocean)."

To answer this, Koh has developed a matrix-calibrated model that "takes account of the specific response of the organisms to each component of matrix". In other words Koh's model combines habitat loss with a species' sensitivity to surrounding matrices to determine the likelihood of extinction.

The matrix model.

Not satisfied with simply developing a new model, Koh tested the new model, dubbed the matrix model, against the conventional island biogeography theory and another theory, called the countryside model, in a "'prediction accuracy' competition". The test looked at survival of bird species in 20 biodiversity hotspots.

"The winner would be the model that produced predictions that were closest to actual known bird extinctions or endangerment," Koh said.

The matrix model took first prize. "I found that the matrix-calibrated model was the best model among all models considered, and it was 13.5 times more strongly supported by the data than the conventional model," Koh says. The countryside model proved least accurate of the three, while the conventional model overestimated extinction in 18 of 20 of the hotspots—not surprising since this model assumes all habitats outside of forest are unlivable which may be true for some species but hardly all.

"While erring on the side of caution may be desirable from a strict conservationist perspective, I believe that is a less tenable position nowadays, given that donors to conservation causes and the general public are expecting more accurate prognosis of environmental ills, and are less tolerant of environmental blackwashing," Koh says. "Also, given increasingly limited conservation resources, it is invaluable to be able to accurately target them where most needed."

To begin helping conservationists immediately, Koh has built a working matrix model on-line called the Species Extinction Calculator. The calculator measures up to three different matrices, as well as allowing conservationists to tinker with the number of forest fragments and the edge effect. An additional Species Extinction Calculator—Multiple Landscapes allows one to measure the extinction rates in various forests and compare them. As well as being surprisingly addictive, the Species Extinction Calculator is an incredibly useful tool for saving species.

Please read more by Jeremy Hance at Mongabay

Comment:
I wounder if the "random matrix theory" could also deepen the vast toll a loss of one extinction has on all others?

More pollution Planes or Volcanos?

InformationisBeautiful.... the Nordic Volcanological Institute of the University of Iceland measured the CO2:SO2 ratio as 5:1 (source). So Eyjafjallajoekull is emitting an estimated 15,000 tons of CO2 a day.

Data here: http://bit.ly/planevolcano

Fresh water for the plants even in the driest place on earth

The interesting discovery of magic box called Groasis Waterboxx that can produce fresh water for the plants even in the driest place on earth. Groasis Waterboxx prototype has been tested in the Sahara desert with 90 percent encouraging results.

The box created by Pieter Hoff, an entrepreneur from Dutch, would be very nice to be developed in the agricultural world especially in drought areas. The box that utilizes a condensation process will be able to produce fresh water needed for plant growth. A considerable amount of water so the plant can access deeper reserves underground, then the box lifts up and can be reused with another plant.

Groasis Waterboxx is a box with 20-inch size which half are polypropylene box that captures water from the air and surrounds by the young plant. When the night comes, the insulation plate allows it to harvest water through condensation. Read More......

The insanity of greenery

Anthony Watts: First, let me say I’m a fan of solar power when done correctly and without financial carrots hung out for electricity generation that entice abuse of the system. I put solar on my own home.
Bishop Hill points out that some solar power installations in Spain were producing power at night.

What was thought to be a joke:

…The prices paid for green energy were so high that it appeared to be profitable to generate that energy by shining conventionally fuelled arclights on the solar panels.

But finds truth to be stranger than fiction:

Although the exact details are slightly different there is now an intriguing report of the scam in practice. The text is based on a machine translation of the original German text:

After press reports,  it was established during inspections that several solar power plants were generating current and feeding it into the net at night. To simulate a larger installation capacity, the operators connected diesel generators.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said one industry expert to the newspaper “El Mundo”, which brought the scandal to light. If solar systems apparently produce current in the dark,  will be noticed sooner or later. However, if  electricity generators were connected during daytime, the swindle would hardly be noticed.

As I said last time around, this is the insanity of greenery.

Here is the Google Translation of the article.

You too can generate energy with your solar system at night, all you need is an 850 million candlepower WWII era searchlight, now available for rent.

Hey, it’s not crazy. There are so many fees, taxes, add ons, etc to power bills here in California now it is actually cheaper to generate your own electricity running a diesel generator than it is to buy it from PG&E. Anyone have a used diesel-electric locomotive I can buy?

Read more at Watts Up With That?

Idle Livestock on Treadmill to Generate Electricity For Farms

A small farm could earn back a 50-cow system's estimated $100,000 price in three years.

ViA PopSciInstead of milling around aimlessly in pens, as most cows do, William Taylor's herd is put to work. As they eat, they walk on an electricity-generating treadmill. 

A small farm could earn back a 50-cow system's estimated $100,000 price in three years.

Taylor has invented, among other contraptions, a better manure mixer and a pen that prevents cows from kicking vets during medical procedures on his farm in Northern Ireland.

But this was his first foray into making power. Cows walk as many as eight hours a day while grazing, and one day Taylor realized that he could turn that free motion into electricity. On his Livestock Power Mill, a cow stands on a nonpowered inclined belt that the animal will slowly slide down unless it walks forward, turning the belt, which spins a gearbox to drive a generator. A feed box entices the cow to keep trekking. The one-cow prototype generates up to two kilowatts, enough to power four milking machines. 

Some studies suggest that cows that exercise make more milk, so Taylor plans to study the system's health benefits this fall. As a bonus, he speculates that it might cut cattle's methane problem-cows burp up to 20 percent of the world's emissions of this powerful greenhouse gas. Humans, he notes, tend to be more gassy if they lounge around. "Helping cows produce less methane while cranking out energy should get them better PR."

Related :Danish Hotel Pays Its Guests to Generate Electricity on Exercise Bikes

IBM's Water-Cooled Aquasar Supercomputer Uses Waste Heat to Warm Dorms

VIA PopSci:

Supercomputers and massive data centers carry huge energy costs when it comes to keeping their electronic components chilly. Now IBM is set to unveil its next big supercomputer, Aquasar, which keeps cool with a constant circulation of water at 140 to 160 degrees F, according to TechNewsDaily.

A system of tiny capillary-like micro-channels feeds the water through the IBM blade servers. Even better, some of the collected heat from the water will end up being released into the building heating system at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich. IBM teamed up with the university to develop Aquasar, which is set to debut next month.
The first trial run would just use a small computer, and create less than one percent of building heating, but later tests with larger server arrays could warm several buildings, or even create energy for sale. The micro-channeled system costs more than typical air cooling up front, but IBM expects to recoup costs after a year or so.

Such water cooling has already seen use in some server farms, except they used room-temperature water that did not provide the secondary benefit of building heating. A UK company has also come out with its own chilling system, involving liquid cooling bags.

Read more at TechNewsDaily

Peter Gleick: how to be more water efficient Q&A

Mr. Gleick was called "one of 15 people Obama should listen to"... I would have to agree. 

What if the world runs out of water? 

In a session titled Water Scarcity and the Human Right to Water at the Skoll World Forum, water experts Peter Gleick, Gary White, and Gidon Bromberg discussed the very real problem of water scarcity in the world. 

Nearly a billion people in the world don't have access to clean water right now, and some are drinking muddied water from nearby streams because the good kind is either too far, too dangerous to get to, or inaccessible due to the lack of knowledge or wells. Gleick — whom Wired called , spoke about the need to rethink and reframe the water problem. 

We have the impression that we'll never run out of water, but that simply isn't true — like oil, water can be over-pumped and its supply can peak, bringing us to a point where the next gallon of water will cause more harm than good. He points out that, in the 20th century, we focused our water efforts on "hard" solutions, technology and infrastructures that could improve water delivery. Now, he says, we have to think of "soft" solutions, economic and social aspects that complement the tech. "The population is growing too rapidly, but we still need to provide people with water and food," he said. "The good news is I think we can do it."

 

Peter Gleick, co-founder and president of the Pacific Institute ... how we can make sure the world doesn't run out of water. 

How are we going to sustain our water supply if the population of the world continues to grow?

I'm a big believer that we have to deal with population, and we don't talk about it enough. But I also believe that, no matter what the population is, we have a responsibility to meet basic human needs for water. We have to look through a much broader lens than saying this is only a population problem.

What can we do to save water? One of the panelists mentioned that eating bananas in the winter is bad for the world water supply, for example.

All sorts of things that we do have water implications that we often don't understand. It takes a lot of water to grow food. That water often comes from regions that don't have much water, like the Middle East. They grow a lot of bananas in Jordan, one of the water poorest countries in the world. Should Jordan be spending its limited water supply to grow bananas for rich people to eat in the winter? I'm not going to answer that, but there are water implications in everything we do.

Here's another connection people don't make. It takes a lot of energy to provide the water goods and services we demand. It takes a lot of energy to move water, to collect and treat water, and to use water. One of the things we realized in the last couple of years is that some of the smartest ways to save energy and reduce climate change may be to save water — to rethink the way we use water in our homes, industry, and agriculture.

How important is it for individuals to participate in the water scarcity problem? Or is this an issue that has to be addressed from the top down?

Without a doubt, we need top down policies for dealing with climate change and sustainable water management. But we need bottom up strategies equally, and these are proving to be much easier to accomplish and much more effective than waiting for the world community to do anything. The climate issue and the water issue are so big that we need to tackle these problems from every direction.

The other thing about bottom up is that, even if someone doesn't care about saving the planet, there are good personal reasons to use water, energy, and carbon more efficiently — it saves money and resources.

Right now, we don't pay the true cost of water — the cost of building infrastructure, treating water, and delivering it; and also, the environmental cost. Those are real costs, but they're what we call externalities — they're not included in the price we pay for goods and services. The price we pay for water doesn't reflect its true cost. If it were more expensive, we would be more thoughtful about how we use it. It's certainly true in our homes, and in our agriculture as well. 80% of water in California goes to agriculture.

How about the way we seem to waste potable on water on things like toilets or the car wash?

We have one set of pipes coming into our house, and it delivers high quality potable water. That's the infrastructure we built. In California and elsewhere, we're starting to build dual piping systems with one for potable water and one for high quality treated waste water. The potable system is hooked up to showers and faucets, and the treated waste water system is hooked up to toilets and gardens. It's expensive to retrofit old homes, but some new developments in Florida and California have dual piping.

The other way is gray water systems. Right now we have a single waste water system — gray water systems would capture some of our waste water that's slightly contaminated from washing machines, shower, and dishwashers for reuse in gardens. There are new laws in California that permit that; they regulate and define how to do it properly.

Many developing countries have gray water systems, but we built our system on the assumption that water is cheap and readily available. In the 21st century, we're going to have to think differently about water. 

Are you optimistic? I have no doubt that we can solve our water problems, even the bad ones. We can meet basic human needs for water for everyone on the planet. We have the technology and the money. I'm less optimistic that we will solve our water problems quickly enough to prevent a lot of human suffering and environmental damage. That's the difference between practical realty versus the world we want to live in

Please read parts 1 & 2 at the Boing

60% of energy lost in the power grid maybe more...

off-grid.net The current system of generating electricity centrally and distributing it through the grid wastes as much as sixty per cent of energy -and it ain't about to get any better, a leading UK academic has told Off-Grid.

Tim Green, Professor of Power Engineering at Imperial College London told us  that efficiency losses in power generation are the biggest issue facing the power industry today.

He estimated that energy losses in the power grid during generation of electricity are between 45 per cent and 55 per cent, depending on the technology used. The transmission system run by National Grid which does the bulk shipping of electricity in the UK, loses a further two or three per cent. Local distribution networks run by big power companies have losses of between five and seven per cent.

"The local distribution networks have higher losses than National Grid because they operate at lower voltages," explained Professor Green.

Limited generating efficiency

But he said that it would be too expensive to make transmission more efficient and that generating efficiency is limited by the laws of physics.

"In energy generation you simply cannot achieve 100% efficiency -or anything close to it because of thermodynamic limitations such as maximum operating temperatures."

However he was anxious to separate the issues of power generation and transmission, which he sees as unrelated, "It is highly misleading to lump generation and transmission networks together and give an overall loss figure because there are two different sets of issues at play and two different approaches needed."

Read more at off-grid.net

$3 hand-powered suction device quickly heals wounds

MIT Grad Student Danielle Zurovcik (below) designed this hand-powered suction device to speed up wound healing. It costs $3 and it works. 

Nobody knows precisely why it works, but doctors have known for decades that the healing process for open wounds can be greatly speeded up by applying negative pressure — that is, suction — under a bandage sealed tightly over the affected area. The speculation is that it helps by drawing bacteria and fluid away from the wound, keeping it cleaner.

...

Earlier this semester, Zurovcik, who had been making plans for field tests of the patent-pending device at a rural clinic in Rwanda this fall, was asked by the nonprofit healthcare organization Partners in Health to take part in earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. She traveled there with a supply of 50 of the current version of the plastic, molded pumps, which cost about $3 each. 

Read more at the Boing2

Can nuclear arms reduction change us?

Not as funny as it is true... and it is very funny.
 

China energy depletion - net importer of oil & U.S. coal ?

 EPIC - The energy depletion consequences are game changing.

1994, the International Energy Agency released a statistic that attracted little attention but years later would transform oil markets and the global economy. China, the west’s energy watchdog said at the time, had just become “a net importer of oil on an annual basis for the first time since the 1960s”.

The consequences became obvious as China’s voracious energy needs propelled the country towards its current ranking as the world’s second-largest oil importer, behind only the US – in the process pushing crude prices to a record high of nearly $150 a barrel in 2008. Beijing, which in 1993 imported a mere 30,000 barrels a day, about as much as Ireland does now, is these days buying 5m barrels a day – or the combined production of Kuwait and Venezuela. 

Now it is the turn of coal. Last year, China became a net importer of coal on an annual basis for the first time since reliable records have existed. Including both thermal coal, used to fire power plants, and coking coal, used for steelmaking, Beijing bought 104m tonnes of the commodity, compared with net exports of as much as 80m tonnes in 2003.

....The mining industry has being awaiting this new “China moment” to profit from a rise in prices. In interviews, mining executives, consultants, analysts and traders say China will need to buy significant amounts of coking coal from overseas from now on and probably also thermal coal.

...demand there was likely to overwhelm indigenous supplies. “We have been waiting for this moment to happen,” he says. “While we are not sure that 2010 will be an exact repeat of 2009, we do expect the trend towards imports in this product to continue.”

IEA’s latest annual World Energy Outlook puts it: “China is expected to remain a dominant influence on the world coal market as it swings from being a net coal exporter into a net importer.”

Not only has the agency this time recognised the significance of the “China moment”; it also adds that China and India, which in 1980 consumed just one-fifth of the world’s coal output and now take about half, will be devouring two-thirds of it by 2030.

Please read full at Financial Time

Senate committee approves green building bill

The Senate Committee on Ethics Reform and Government Operations, on a 4-1 vote Thursday, approved the bill. The Senate sponsor is state Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, and its Assembly sponsor is state Rep. Louis Molepske Jr., D-Stevens Point.

After introducing the bill last month, Molepske offered a number of amendments, including opening the third-party verification field so that certification is not only attainable through the U.S. Green Building Council. He also removed a portion of the bill that would have allowed local governments to exceed the state's energy code for one- and two-family homes.

Read full at DailyReporter

Laser enrichment technology has been successfully completed

"This is a project clearly Steven Chu would love"
The initial phase of the test loop program for the SILEX laser enrichment technology has been successfully completed by Global Laser Enrichment (GLE).

The test loop facility is designed to demonstrate the commercial feasibility of the technology and is intended to advance the design of the equipment and processes for the proposed commercial production facility.

In January 2010, the NRC formally established a 30-month application review schedule. In February, during a public licensing meeting, the NRC indicated they were working to a 30-month schedule which would be completed in December 2011. This means that the commercial facility license could be received as early as January 2012, after which construction of the production plant could proceed.

This site has looked at the technical details of the SILEX enrichment process and compared it to gas centrifuge. The Silex laser uranium enrichment process has been indicated to be an order of magnitude more efficient than existing production techniques but again, the exact figure is classified.

The process is based on selective excitation of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) molecules that contain U-235 by laser light at a narrow spectral line near 16 µm. The CO2 lasers can generate 1 J pulses, but only at a limited repetition rate, and only a fraction of the pulse is in the pump band. Unspecified "additional nonlinear optical tricks" are needed to convert the CO2 pump light to the correct wavelength to pump the Raman cell. The lasers are 1% efficient and the Raman conversion 25% efficient, so the overall efficiency is 0.25%. With many details classified or proprietary, it is hard to quantify the processing. Lyman wrote that if a laser could illuminate a one-liter volume at an ideal repetition rate, it would take about 100 hours to produce one kilogram of U-235-assuming complete separation of the U-235 and U-238 isotopes. However, most processes require multiple stages of separation, and according to Lyman's comments, a 5000 Hz laser would be needed to process all the feed stream (a mixture of UF6 and an unidentified diluting gas.

Proliferation Fears In the journal Nature, there is an article Stop laser uranium enrichment It is written by Slakey (University of California Economics Prof) and Cohen (Law Professor). They argue that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should prevent GE from building the SILEX commercial plant because the GE plant will perfect laser enrichment and allow others to steal the secrets.

* The mean US household savings from laser enrichment of uranium would probably be less than $2 a month * The technology could be misappropriated to secretly enrich uranium for weaponry * The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission should assess proliferation risks in the licensing process

The $3-4 billion per year in savings appears to only be a calculation of the one GE Silex plant. The ultimate savings could be from converting all nuclear enrichment  to Silex processes and the improvement economics could boost the use of nuclear energy. Improved enrichment would also allow economic re-enrichment of depleted uranium (the part that gets thrown away from current enrichment but still has 0.3% of the desirable uranium). The actual opportunity cost of not building SILEX would be far higher and the possible gain would be far less, because I do not think it would slow down the non-US programs that much. An example, is President Jimmy Carter stopped the US from developing reprocessing of Uranium back in the seventies. Yet reprocessing is still done by France, UK, Russia and Japan.

Read more at NextBigFuture

Free Washington State Energy Code Update class

The WSU Energy Program is offering a full day training on the residential sections of the 2009 Washington State Energy Code.
The course will focus on the changes to the energy code but will also discuss energy basics, code layout and use, and application to projects during the design, review, and construction phases.


The Washington State University Extension Energy Program will be hosting a full day 2009 WSEC training on Tuesday May 18, 2010. 

Register and find out more online at:
www.energy.wsu.edu/code/

Federal Buildings Go Green with $4 Billion in Recovery Act Funds

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) recently reached the milestone of investing $4 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for energy efficiency in federal buildings nationwide (GSA press release).

To accomplish this feat, the GSA streamlined operations to quickly award contracts and begin construction on hundreds of green projects. The agency anticipates that all new and significantly upgraded federal buildings will achieve at least a LEED Silver certification, thanks to the GSA's use of sustainable design and technology. LEED Silver is the third-highest ranking available under the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system, which is the green building rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Read more from EERE

Related: Google's Dan Reicher warned the Senate: when these temporary stimulus funds dry up, the U.S. could fall of a "funding cliff" unless significantly larger allocations are made for clean energy R&D in Congressional legislation.

Evidence of Virus That Infects Both Plants and Humans

From rabies to bird flu to HIV, diseases passing from animals to humans is a well-known phenomenon. 

But a virus jumping from plants to humans? Never.

At least, that's what doctors thought until Didier Raoult of the University of the Mediterranean in Marseilles, France, discovered that the mild mottle virus found in peppers may be causing fever, aches, and itching in humans. If validated, this would mark the first time a plant virus has been found to cause problems in people.

...Not everyone is convinced, however. Robert Garry, a virologist at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, claims the virus lacks the biochemical key needed to gain entry into a cell, and thus couldn't possibly infect human tissue.

Read full at New Scientist via PopSci

Energy conservation could save billions, create jobs

Energy-efficiency measures in the southern U.S. could save consumers $41 billion on their energy bills, open 380,000 new jobs, and save 8.6 billion gallons of water by 2020, according to a new study from the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The study concludes that (via earthtechling)

The study, released Monday, concludes that aggressive energy efficiency initiatives would:

• Generate new jobs, cut utility bills and sustain economic growth. Overall utility bills would be reduced by $41 billion a year in 2020 and $71 billion in 2030; the average residential electricity bills would decline by $26 per month in 2020 and $50 per month in 2030; electricity rate increases would be moderated; and 380,000 new jobs would be created by 2020 (annual job growth increases to 520,000 new jobs in 2030). The region's economy is anticipated to grow by $1.23 billion in 2020 and $2.12 billion in 2030.
  
• Reduce the need for new power plants. Almost 25 gigawatts of older power plants could be retired and the construction of up to 50 gigawatts of new plants (equal to the amount of electricity produced by 100 power plants) could be avoided.
  
• Result in substantial water conservation. The reduction in power plant capacity would save southern regions of the North American Electrical Reliability Corporation 8.6 billion gallons of fresh water in 2020 and 20.1 billion gallons in 2030.

Read on at PhysOrg

More information: Profiles of the report's results for each state are available at:

Today Boone will address U.S. House on dangerous dependence on OPEC oil

T. Boone Pickens will be testifying before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means. The topic is "Energy Tax Incentives Driving the Green Job Economy" and all 1.6 million members of the Pickens Plan Army will be at the table with him (in spirit)!

Boone will address our nation's dangerous dependence on OPEC oil and the importance of harnessing our own domestic resources, creating a new energy economy. You can visit http://waysandmeans.house.gov to tune in and watch the hearing online...

Related 

China Pays $4.5B for Canadian Oil Sands Stake

U.S. v China for World Oil

 

Recovery? the most Americans ever recorded go hungry

[L.A.Times]...our people set a new record for food stamp consumption in a month, hopefully this is a record-breaking surge that ends sometime soon.

About 39.4 million Americans, the most ever, received food stamps in January, the government said.
The number of recipients was up 22% from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The total of Americans getting the subsidy has hit records for 14 consecutive months.

 Apparently this is how we are going to fix Childhood Obesity :-(

 

Related:

U.S. Birth Rate Decline Linked to Recession

HIPPA record and preventative medicine FAIL

... people would hide things from their doctor if the medical record system shared anonymous data with other organizations.

Read full a Comsumerist

Toxic Beef, Rejected by Mexico, Sold in U.S.

USA Today - Beef containing harmful pesticides, veterinary antibiotics and heavy metals is being sold to the public because federal agencies have failed to set limits for the contaminants or adequately test for them, a federal audit finds.

A program set up to test beef for chemical residues "is not accomplishing its mission of monitoring the food supply for … dangerous substances, which has resulted in meat with these substances being distributed in commerce," says the audit by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Inspector General.

The health effects on people who eat such meat are a "growing concern," the audit adds.

The testing program for cattle is run by the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), which also tests meat for such pathogens as salmonella and certain dangerous strains of E. coli. But the residue program relies on assistance from the Environmental Protection Agency, which sets tolerance levels for human exposure to pesticides and other pollutants, and the Food and Drug Administration, which does the same for antibiotics and other medicines.

DOCUMENTS: Read the audit report

Limits have not been set by the EPA and FDA "for many potentially harmful substances, which can impair FSIS' enforcement activities," the audit found.

... read full Via USA Today