0 Comment(s) | Posted Feb 8, 2012 by Gilbert Campbell |
Stay tuned as we will have a diverse group of renewable energy/energy efficiency thought leaders, professionals, and others contribute interesting information to our blog.
0 Comment(s) | Posted Feb 8, 2012 by Gilbert Campbell |
0 Comment(s) | Posted Feb 8, 2012 by Gilbert Campbell |
0 Comment(s) | Posted Feb 8, 2012 by Susan M. Branch |
The United States Marine Corps plans to use GREENS toolkits to stay powered in Afghanistan. Read more about how GREENS toolkits work and how they will hopefully make the U.S. military more energy independent: http://www.getsolar.com/blog/marine-corps-goes-solar-in-the-field/3818/
0 Comment(s) | Posted Feb 8, 2012 by Susan M. Branch |
J.R. Ewing will forever be remembered as the cut throat and filthy rich oil tycoon on the television show “Dallas.” I doubt we will ever see a “Dallas” reunion show where Ewing pledges to stop using oil to power his home, and instead use solar energy. Ewing may never abandon fossil fuel for solar energy, but the actor that played him did. Larry Hagman installed solar panels at his 46-acre estate in California in 2003, and he has been an advocate for solar energy ever since. Click the link to hear the “Son of Solar” (Hagman) describe his solar panel system and the amazing amount he saves on his annual electric bill: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcd8BiIU13U.
0 Comment(s) | Posted Feb 8, 2012 by Antoinette Ellison |
The benefit of being an educator is that you are always learning…or relearning. This summer, I have been working on lesson plans for the upcoming school year. The objective of one particular lesson is for students to understand how a bill becomes a law. After several attempts at using graphic organizers to explain the flow, I became frustrated and thought about how I learned that concept as a student. Then it hit me, “Schoolhouse Rocks!” I still remember the song “I’m just a bill, I am only a bill and I’m sitting here on Capitol Hill.” I searched on Youtube and there it was; the episode I saw many times as a child. Soon my students will learn the legislative process the same way that I did.
Speaking of the legislative process, while educators are continuing to enjoy their summer break and making plans for the upcoming school year, North Carolina legislators ended their summer break and went back to work. The good news is that they are thinking "green." They started the session by addressing the budget and will soon begin considering a different kind of “green”; the "2010 Sustainable Energy Legislative Agenda." The agenda is dedicated to creating green energy jobs and economic opportunities in communities across North Carolina. Stay tuned for more information. Until then, stay cool and enjoy your summer.
0 Comment(s) | Posted Feb 8, 2012 by Susan M. Branch |
Check out this great video that explains how we can create natural gas from manure.
0 Comment(s) | Posted Feb 8, 2012 by Susan M. Branch |
Everyone has seen the “got milk?” advertising campaign encouraging everyone to drink milk because it “does a body good.” www.gotmilk.com Well, we may be hearing a new advertising campaign in the near future… “got poop?”
A new form of energy is starting to catch on in the United States and internationally called biomass energy. Biomass energy is defined by any organic materials that can be burned and then used as a source of fuel. Cows eat a lot of organic material which leads to a lot of poop, which then leads to large amounts of biogas. Well, it is not that simple, see the chart under the Biogas is a Form of Renewable Energy section: www.re-energy.ca/t-i_biomassbuild-1.shtml. The cows do not produce the biogas by themselves; it is produced by billions of microorganisms that live in their digestive systems. Biogas, which is considered a biomass fuel, is a mixture of carbon dioxide and methane gases. When the poop decomposes it produces methane. The biogas can be collected using a simple tank. Then the biogas is transferred to a closed tank where the gas can accumulate. After it accumulates it can then be bottled and used to power gas cooking appliances and furnaces, or it can be shipped to a power plant to power homes.
A dairyman in California started The Vintage Dairy Biogas Project with the goal to provide enough natural gas to power 1,200 homes a day. The manure from 250,000 cows located on a farm in Shenyang, China will produce 38,000 MWh a year and will reduce approximately 180,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. The advantages of these dairy farm biogas projects include: alternative disposal of dung, liquid manure and biowaste; reduces greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (methane has 21 times the greenhouse warming potential as carbon dioxide); generates power; the solid waste from the process can be sold as organic fertilizer and the liquid production residue can be used to nourish grass at farms.
Can’t you see it now, the “got poop?” advertising campaign will encourage dairy farmers to convert biomass to biogas because it will “do the environment good.” So the next time that you are out on the farm in a new pair of shoes taking in the view, and you make that unfortunate step, don’t curse. You have just stepped in to the next generation of renewable energy. “Got poop”…now you do!
0 Comment(s) | Posted Feb 8, 2012 by Gilbert Campbell |
*** Fast forward to 20 minute mark to hear comments regarding Volt Energy and other minority renewable energy project developers.
