November 24th, 2009

Schneider Electric is latest to draw link between building and network energy controls

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 1:17 pm

Categories: building, conservation, energy, engineering, green tech

Tags: Schneider Electric, Network, Physical Security, Data Centers, Storage, Hardware, Data Management, Heather Clancy

Facilities infrastructure giant Schneider Electric has adopted an architectural approach to intelligent energy management that it has dubbed EcoStruxure.

The effort will better integrate the company’s technologies across power distribution and protection systems, data centers (where the company’s sells the APC by Schneider Electric InfraStruxure line), industrial controls, building controls and physical security technologies. The company has positioned these technologies as vital to corporate-wide energy intelligence. The connections between these various components, through open IP and Web services, is also seen as critical.

Most of the pieces of the EcoStruxure approach exist already. What’s missing is the business practices and reference architectures that businesses can use to apply an integrated approach. Look for related training and documentation to emerge throughout 2010, according to the company.

November 23rd, 2009

Atmospheric CO2 levels to hit million-year high

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 8:29 pm

Categories: Blogroll, air pollution, cars & traffic, climate change, energy, environmental health, fossil fuel, global warming, petroleum, research

Tags: Carbon Dioxide, Current Climate Change Theory, IPCC, Harry Fuller

American scientists say the CO2 levels in the earth’s atmosphere are going to hit levels not seen in the past million years. Current climate change theory says CO2 is one of the gases that is causing global warming.

Researchers say the additional CO2 entering the atmosphere is stable and can remain for thousands of years. As fast as plants absorb CO2, more is being added. The IPCC says the additional CO2 is partially due to human acticity, especially burning fossil fuels and wood.

The rise of CO2 in the atmosphere has been measured since 1998 when records were first kept. This past year has seen the CO2 concentration increase slightly faster. The World Moeteorlogical Organization says the increase began with the Industrial Revolution over 200 years ago. The three main greenhouse gases are CO2, methane and N2O (nitrous oxide). All three have both natural and man-made causes.

The IPCC projects that the current CO2 emission curve would raise global temps from 4.3 to 11.5 degrees Fahrenheit by century’s end. Temperatures are already 1 degree higher in the past century. The IPCC says this warming’s mainly due to the build-up of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

Such warming is predicted to change weather patterns with more extreme weather events. More drought and famine. Political and demographic disruption. More floods. Extinction of numerous plant and animal species. Rising sea levels along with the melting of land ice. Those are the IPCC predictions. Sounds like just another 2012 movie, doesn’t it?

November 23rd, 2009

Solar powered airplane: ready for take-off?

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 8:07 pm

Categories: Blogroll, Europe, aviation & aeronautics, energy, engineering, green tech, renewable energy, research, solar

Tags: Monitoring, Plane, Web Site Development, Web Technology, Internet, Harry Fuller

A solar powered airplane has passed its first set of tests. On the ground. The “Solar Impulse” has been undergoing runway tests in Switzerland. It’s powered by over 11-thousand solar panels on its very long wings.

Here on the Impulse’s website you can see videos of the plane. The goal is to fly it around the world. Omega, Solvay and Deutsche Bank are the main corporate sponsors of the project.
Image courtesy of Solar Impulse.

So far the plane has not left the ground, but both engines definitely run. Says the website, “At the controls of the HB-SIA, Solar Impulse test pilot Markus Scherdel cautiously took to the runway under the watchful eyes of the whole team, with computers monitoring the plane’s behaviour online via the embedded telemetric devices.
“This inaugural day out on the runway allowed low-speed runway testing with the prototype going through a series of acceleration and breaking manoeuvres, checking that the calculated and simulated strains are not being exceeded.”

November 23rd, 2009

EPA reports positive news on vehicle emissions, efficiency front

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 6:40 pm

Categories: air pollution, cars & traffic, climate change, conservation, energy, environmental health, green tech, research

Tags: Carbon Dioxide, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Carbon Dioxide Emission, Heather Clancy

For the first time, the Environmental Protection Agency is included carbon dioxide emissions information in its annual report, “Light-Duty Automotive Technology, Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Fuel Economy Trends: 1975 through 2009.”

The news is relatively positive: Not only has fuel efficiency increased for the fifth consecutive year — to an average of 21.1 miles per gallon compared with 21 miles per gallon — the agency reports that average carbon dioxide emissions have decreased since 2005. Since 2004, average carbon dioxide emissions have been reduced by 39 grams per mile, which is a reduction of about 8 percent. This reverses a trend from 1987 to 2004, when carbon dioxide emissions increased and fuel efficiency decline, according to the EPA.

Here’s the trends report.

Try to tell me this is a bad thing.

November 23rd, 2009

British scientists call for action in Copenhagen

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 5:55 pm

Categories: Blogroll, Europe, air pollution, climate change, energy, environmental health, global warming, law & politics, research

Tags: U.K., Copenhagen, Harry Fuller

Here’s a joint statement from the UK’s Met Office, the Natural Environment Research Council and the Royal Society on the the science of climate change ahead of the Copenhagen climate conference.

If you don’t care to read it, they’re saying: evidence of global warming is piling up, things are already deteriorating and humans should do something. Not mentioning the East Anglia hacking there in the UK, they say, “Climate scientists from the UK and across the world are in overwhelming agreement about the evidence of climate change, driven by the human input of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.”

The Copenhagen climate conference begins December 7th.

November 23rd, 2009

Cleantech Open: And the award goes to ... EcoFactor

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 3:27 pm

Categories: conservation, energy, environmental health, green tech, venture capital

Tags: Clean Technology, EcoFactor, Adura, Heather Clancy

The business plan for a home energy management system from EcoFactor won the $250,000 grand prize at last weeks Cleantech Open, a business competition supporting start-up activity in clean technology.

Having interviewed several companies in this sector over the past few months, I can say with authority that the home technologies attached to the smart grid are what fascinate me most right now. As I glance over at my own woefully out-of-date thermostat — one that I doubt I will convince my husband we must replace anytime soon — I find myself wondering how we’re going to get that final piece of the puzzle to fall into place. This Green Inc. blog by The New York Times outlines where the Ecofactor technology fits and why its subscription pricing model might be the kick-in-the-butt that consumers need to adopt this stuff. AND my fellow blogger Harry Fuller has also blogged about the technology, as he just reminded me. Here’s his post from early November.

EcoFactor gets $250,000, including $100,000 in seed capital. (It already won $100,000 in the regional competition.)

Cleantech also organized a Global Ideas Competition, encouraging communities to submit information about project they’re working on at a grassroots level. The prize coffer was $100,000 in marketing services, legal advice and so on. The winner (selected by text message by the Cleantech Open Expo audience was Replenish Energy out of Puerto Rico, which is working on process to convert microalgae from saltwater ponds into biofuel. (The leftover stuff can be used in humus or feedstock.)

Here’s the video that helped win Replenish Energy the Global Ideas Competition.

Interestingly enough, a former Cleantech “alumni” company, Adura Technologies, won an award for the best progress made over the past year. Adura is featured in this video over at our Smart Planet sister blog network.

November 23rd, 2009

Video: Adura commercial lighting technology saves on power costs

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 12:02 pm

Categories: conservation, energy, green tech

Tags: Network, Blog, Video, Mesh Networking, Corporate Communications, Blogging, Networking, Marketing, Internet, Heather Clancy

November 21st, 2009

American cars giving slightly more miles per gallon

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 4:12 pm

Categories: Blogroll, air pollution, cars & traffic, conservation, energy, engineering, environmental health, federal government, fossil fuel, petroleum

Tags: Car, Emission, Carbon Dioxide, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Harry Fuller

The avergae MPG of cars driven by Americans continues to edge up. According to the EPA, average MPG hit 21 in 2008. It’s up nearly 2 MPG since 2004.

High gas prices and then the cash for clunkers program are expected to keep the MPG moving up this year. CO2 emissions have also been fallling since 2004. That year marked a turnaround in the U.S. The EPA reports CO2 emissions increased and fuel efficiency decreased in the United States from 1987 to 2004.

MOST EFFICIENT

Honda again leads in fuel efficiency on American highways, says the EPA. Next come Hyundai-Kia and then Toyota. VW finished fourth in fleet efficiency. Both GM and Ford showed fuel efficiency gains.

November 20th, 2009

Holiday LED redux: E-store will accept Home Depot coupon

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 2:35 pm

Categories: conservation, energy, green tech

Tags: Coupon, Home Depot Inc., Light-emitting Diode, Engineering, Heather Clancy

Are you holding an expired Home Depot LED holiday light exchange coupon? (The promotion ended Nov. 15.) Or were you unable to use it because your local Home Depot store ran out of LED lights by the time you brought your old incandescent sets in for recycling?

You could use the Home Depot LED coupon against a purchase from HolidayLEDs.com. You can redeem up to five of the Home Depot coupons, with a minimum purchase of $15 required for each coupon. The program will last from Nov. 20, 2009, through Dec. 31, 2009.

If you have more lights to recycle, you can take part in the HolidayLEDs.com program, which is explained here.

November 20th, 2009

Science of better fuel cells

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 11:58 am

Categories: Blogroll, energy, engineering, green tech, housing, renewable energy, research, water

Tags: Fuel Cell, Fuel Cells, Emerging Technologies, Harry Fuller

An MIT energy and chemistry researcher is working on better ways to produce energy on a personal, household level. His goal: workable fuel cell tech that is efficient. Today he explained on NPR how his group has found a new catalytic process that takes water and through hydrolysis releases hydrogen which is then burned in the fuel cell to produce electricity.

The MIT hydrolysis process uses a catalyst consisting of cobalt metal, phosphate. Then add an electrode.